


You Deserve Better

by Deben



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventually reader will break up with them tho, F/F, F/M, I'm Sorry, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Reader Is Not Chara, Reader Is Not Frisk, Reader has a big family, Reader is asexual, Reader is non-binary, Swearing, Will Add More, drinking of the alcohol, i'm going for a slowburn, it's not going to have much family angst, it's not with Sans, just a bit, maybe a little family angst, my attempt at puns, not sure how slow i can write it tho, reader doesn't drink tho, reader starts out in a relationship, sans is also asexual, so definitely no smut, sorry no smut, was born a girl tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-12-15 08:24:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11802216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deben/pseuds/Deben
Summary: You're in a serious relationship with someone who cheats and constantly goes out drinking. Despite this, you still want to marry her.After Natalie makes a scene at the bar, Sans notices your existence, and can't seem to get you out of his skull.He can't help but think that you deserve better.





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, um, I'm still trying to get a hang of this whole 'plot thing', so this will be a journey for me... Hopefully you'll follow along with me?

Sans didn’t think even in his wildest dreams that there was a being out there as annoying as jerry. It was just a given, Jerry was literally the eleven on the scale of ‘how annoying? 1-10?’ Scratch that, jerry was the 100.

 

It would have seemed at the moment, that Sans was wrong, for on the stool right next to him at Grillby’s, was some chick he hadn’t cared to learn the name of. She was currently pressing her fake boobs into his arm, and telling him her life story.

 

Right now she was at the part where her boyfriend didn’t love her enough, and constantly flirted with other girls.

 

“He doeshn’t looove meee!” She wailed, letting out another string of gross sounding sobs. “I did everything for him! And he doshn’t even want to shleep with me!”

 

Sans was a patient guy, he waited for over ten years of resets so he could finally get a happy ending for him and his bro. Which is why he hadn’t told plastic boobs to fuck off yet. Honestly, he’d just wanted to go out, and relax with a bottle of ketchup.

 

This was the opposite of relaxing. The other patrons at Grillby’s were minding their own business, probably not wanting to get caught up in the mess that was the human next to him. He really couldn’t blame them.

 

What right did he have to be mean to a human, who sure, was being an annoying as hell drunk, but otherwise did no wrong?

 

“He gave mee thish shtupid ring! Shais he wantsh ta marry me! Weeeelllll, nooooooSUREEEEE, MISHTER!” With that, she promptly threw it behind her head. Instead of the expected plinking of the ring falling onto the ground, only footsteps followed her demonstration.

 

“Babe?”

 

Sans turned his head to see another human, short, but possibly taller than the bimbo next to him. You were holding the ring, and a blanket was in your other arm.

 

“____?”

 

Grillby’s was silent. They weren’t used to confrontations between humans. You stepped closer, and wrapped the blanket around Bimbo’s shoulders. “Baby, I was so worried…” You said, effortlessly picking up Bimbo from the stool. It was a comical sight, seeing as you, who Bimbo had called ‘____’, were only an inch or two taller than bimbo, who was around a solid five feet.

 

Bimbo turned her head with a huff. “I fugged Trishtan lasht nigggght” She said.

 

Okay, this was the part where everything got a little to TMI for Sans’ liking, but something about the way Bimbo was so shameless in her confession perked his interest.

 

Especially when all you did was sigh. “I know, hun.”

 

Okay, Sans was pretty sure by now that he wasn’t the only one listening in. “You sent me the audio…” Sans had to fake a cough to hide his laugh, he felt bad, but damn if other’s misery wasn’t funny.

 

“Oh, I did?”

 

“Come on with me, Babe.” Your gaze was soft on Bimbo, although Sans had no idea why. She had just blatantly confessed to cheating on you, wasn’t this the part where you leave in a mad rage?

 

“Did you lishten to it?”

 

Your eyes were pleading with Bimbo to stop taking, but it seemed that was enough response for her.

 

“OF COURSHE YOU DIDN’T! YOU DON’T EVEN LOOOVE ME EEENOUGH TO LISHTEN TO ME CHEAT ON YOUUUUU!” Aaaannnnd, there was the ugly cry face again. “You know that’s not it, Baby”

 

Bimbo tore herself away from you, and sat back on the seat, holding the blanket tight around herself. 

 

“I’m not leaving without you. You’ve been gone for two days…”

 

“I wash wiiiithhh Trishtan ALLLL yesterday!” Bimbo was still crying.

 

“I know, you texted me.”

 

“I did? Oh, Never mind! DON’TCHU GET IT? WE’RE OVVEEER!”

 

“Don’t say that, please” Sans was surprised to hear the real pain in your voice. So you really loved her, huh?

 

Bimbo angrily grabbed the ring back from you, and prepared to throw it again, but started crying even harder when she looked at it. From this vantage point, Sans also got to see the ring, which featured a brilliant diamond in the center, surrounded by more sparkling gems. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that you were the type of sucker to get real diamonds, too.

 

“I’MMM SHUCCCCH A BAD GIIIIRRRRRLLLLLLFFFFRRRRRRRIIIIIIEEEEENNNNNDDDD!” With all the gentleness of Asgore tending to his flowers, you took the ring from Bimbo’s hand, and slipped it back onto her finger, not forgetting to kiss it afterwards. “No, you’re not.”

 

Making disgusting sniveling sounds with snot coming out of her nose, it was a wonder how you could look with such affection upon Bimbo. Once again, you swept her off of the stool, “I am the worsht girlfriend, and ur the besht boyfriend, aannnd I’m shoooo shorrryyy!”

 

“It’s okay.”

 

And with that, you were both out of the bar. Chatter started as soon as the two of you had walked out, leaving Sans to turn to Grillby with a bemused expression. “i will never understand humans.”

 

“You don’t need to understand humans to understand love…” Grillby told Sans, continuing to polish a glass.

 

Sans just raised a brow bone at the mention of ‘love’.

 

“Just because they’re no good for eachother doesn’t mean that they aren’t in love.” Not good for eachother? The only problem Sans saw was Bimbo’s cheating, you, ____, as Bimbo had called you, were the perfect example of a significant other: patient, forgiving, level-headed and caring.

 

“i can’t believe they’re getting married…” Was Sans’ only further comment as he said goodbye to Grillby and took a shortcut home. It was already in the early A.M., and Sans knew that the following day was going to suck.

 

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````meanwhile```````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

You really didn’t enjoy it when Natalie got drunk.

 

You also couldn’t really stop her from destroying her body, the most you could do as her supportive fiance was gently warn her.

 

Neither could you really stop her from getting breast implants or cheating, both of which she’d already done. The most you could do was advise her.

 

And while you were trying to be supportive to Natalie, you felt like paying for her implants and not getting angry about her cheating might have been doing more harm than good. It wasn’t like you didn’t understand, signing away sex for fidelity was too much for a lot of people.

 

It became clear within the first few months of dating that it was taking a toll on Natalie. Which is when you told her that you would sleep with her, despite your asexuality… after you were married.

 

She’d laughed and joked with you about it; neither of you could really be sure that your relationship was strong enough for that yet, despite knowing each other for half of both of your lives.

 

It only was maybe four months later that you proposed, having realized that you wanted to spend the rest of your days with her, and she agreed. Now the wedding date was growing ever closer, but you couldn’t help but feel a little dread. Why, though?

 

You loved her. The her that wasn’t constantly drunk and running away and fucking your friends. The her that wasn’t embarrassed to be with you because you were non-binary. Of course, you’d told her she could call you her ‘boyfriend’ if it made her more comfortable.

 

It was like that when you were friends, in fact it was so great that you’d asked if she wanted to try dating when you were in college. You’d graduated with your PhD incredibly early, only staying in school a few years after most received their four year degrees, including Natalie. 

 

After you’d graduated a year ago, you’d gotten a unique job offer in a research lab run by the esteemed Dr. Gaster. It payed well, and had great hours and coworkers. Now that you were able to provide for her, Natalie seemed to have completely gone crazy with buying things and even quit her job.

 

Sure, you were making lots of money, but weren’t really able to use any of it for yourself, instead trying to pay off your students loans, pay bills, and take care of Natalie.

 

You really missed the days when she used to try and hide her cheating.

 

Like you’d said, you understood that unlike you, she wanted sex. And if you couldn’t give it to her, then why not just find someone who could? Nowadays she like to elicit guilt from you, and point out that you were just as bad when you ‘flirted’ with others.

 

Genuine compliments were not meant to be particularly flirtatious, but maybe that was something Natalie saw as romantic. You had been told that your incessant kindness could drive some into a tizzy.

 

As you carried your fiance home, you gazed lovingly at her face. It was so much more beautiful when she wasn’t crying or sneering at you. 

 

You knew that no matter what, you’d always find her beautiful and intriguing. There was something about her that seduced you, and you were powerless to fight it. 

 

Even if she cheated on you and made you chase her into remote bars across town, you knew that you would never have the heart to leave her.

 

You loved her. You really did.


	2. chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans officially meets you

Sans was right about the day going to suck.

 

It almost felt like he had a hangover even though he didn’t even have one fucking sip of alcohol. No amount of coffee could replace the (let’s be honest) extra hour of sleep he might have gotten.

 

The fluorescent lights at the lab were too bright, and the coffee he kept chugging was watery and bitter.

 

Sans hadn’t been able to focus on his work so far; instead his thoughts kept drifting off to you and Bimbo, and other random things. So far the most he’d done was walk into his office, and make constant coffee breaks while staring at his computer screen.

 

He was supposed to be writing a report.

 

Rubbing the bride of his ‘nose’, Sans contemplated the possibility of grabbing another cup of coffee, or maybe taking an early lunch break. It was still fucking ten in the morning.

 

Whatever, it’s not like he was going to get any work done in this state, anyways. Trudging out of his office and into the break room again, Sans monotonously poured himself a cup of coffee that had been brewed an hour ago and was now cold.

 

The door opened behind Sans, and he took a quick look over his shoulder to see something he was not expecting.

 

____, you

Right in front of him. Or, really, right behind him. Dumbfounded, he let the styrofoam cup overflow. You smiled at him, and when you noticed the overflow, you quickly grabbed some napkins and started to dab at the mess.

“Your, uh, your cup is overflowing. You might want to just- here, let me help…” You took the coffee pot from him, and set it back down in its place. “____?” Sans asked.

 

“Sans?” You teasingly replied, smiling gently at him before turning to throw the dirty napkins away. “it’s just, uh, i didn’t know you worked here?”

 

“I’ve been working here for almost a year now, but it’s understandable that you wouldn’t know I’m here since I work in the biology wing with Dr. Alpys… But where else would you know me from?”

 

“i uh, was at grillby’s last night” your expression immediately crumbled, causing some sort of pang in Sans’ ribcage. “Sorry you had to see that… Natalie’s usually better than that… when she’s not drunk…” you smiled back up at Sans, and softly clapped your hands. “But… she’s not always sad and angry. Sometimes, she’s rather pleasant. This one time, she even cooked dinner for us!”

 

You looked so happy remembering that, that it made Sans not want to ask how long ago it was. “You see, usually I cook dinner, mostly because I get home first. I don’t mind, though. Natalie just needs some time to figure things out, I think.”

 

Jeez, how many times had you told yourself this?

 

“you really take care of her, huh?” The large smile you sported at his comment lit his soul up, you were just so… precious, he even noticed that you had a dimple on your right cheek. “I love taking care of her… she’s so cute when she smiles. I wish you could have seen that part of her last night. Cooking, cleaning, doing even little things for her… I love it all. I love her…”

 

The pure adoration on your face might have convinced Sans that ‘Natalie’ was absolutely perfect for you, but having met her, Sans knew otherwise. Or, at least, he thought he did. How could you love someone who was like that?

 

“heh, you’re like my bro. he’s always trying to take care of this sack o’ bones.”

 

“I’m sure he’s absolutely lovely. Papyrus, his name was? Alphys tells me stories about her wife and him often, about you as well.”

 

Sans was surprised to find out about this. How is it that you’d known him for almost a year, but he had only found out about your existence last night due to a scene your fiance caused? For so long you’d been a background character in his life, all the while you’d probably known random facts and stories about him.

 

It was… a realization.

 

Like meeting some random aunt you’d never known, but your mother had sent pictures of you to for your entire life, and later at a funeral for some relative, she approached you and told you that she’d held you as a baby. Not that Sans knew what that was like.

 

Without thinking, words tumbled from between Sans’ teeth, “do you want to grab some lunch?” For a second, you looked surprised, but quickly recovered. “That’d be nice, but don’t you think it’s a little early?”

 

With a shrug, Sans held up the cup of coffee he’d poured earlier, some spilling out of the cup and dripping onto the floor. “i seem to have _bean_ unable to concentrate.”

 

You laughed, again that sweet sound, and once again, your dimple showed. “That’s terrible. I shouldn’t go just because of that pun… but, I’d be lying to say that I don’t find the art of puns to be _brew_ -tiful.”

 

Sans’ smile grew. Maybe if he got to know you a little better, he’d stop constantly thinking about you and actually be able to get on with his life. And so far, that didn’t seem all too bad a prospect.

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

You’d never gone to grab lunch at ten thirty in the morning. But the desire to know Sans better and potentially gain a new friend was too great to mind the fact that this was going to bite you in the butt in six hours when you were driving home with an empty stomach.

 

He brought you to Grillby’s, then soon after remembered what had transpired the previous night, and teleported you to a cute little shop called ‘Muffet’s Bakery’, after apologizing.

Yes, teleported. When you’d agreed to lunch, he’d asked you to take his hand, and as soon as you did, a dizzying feeling came over you, and your vision went dark. After what could have been seconds or hours, you were in front of your destination.

 

You’d asked Sans how it worked, but he’d just wiggled his phalanges in a jazz-hand motion, and replied ‘magic’. It was comical, to say the least. Heh, comic sans.

 

At the counter was an adorable spider lady, who introduced herself as Muffet, the owner. You gave her a dazzling smile, and complimented her and her shop, bringing a slight dark purple blush to her cheeks. “Oh, thank you dearie ~ you could learn a thing or two about politeness from this one, Sansy, Ahuhuhu ~”

 

“Ya ya,” Sans rolled his eyelights in a playful manner, “whaddya want, kiddo?” Flashing another smile to both of them, you examined the treats that were on display. “Oh, well, I’ve heard good things about your pastries, and I know that your Spider Cider is popular… so I’ll have an apple-spider tart and the cider.”

 

“Ahuhu ~ you’re too kind, would you like the ones without the spiders or with, dearie ~”

 

“I think I’ll have it with the spiders… the original recipe is always the best, right?”

 

“My my, what a catch you have there, Sansy ~”

 

“nah, they’re already engaged. and get me the usual, muffs.”

 

“I wonder who was lucky enough to catch your eye ~”

 

“She’s… I really love her…” Muffet nodded, and out of the corner of your eye, you saw Sans fidget slightly. “Well, here you are, dearies, and come back soon ~” Before Sans could reach for his wallet, you grabbed out some cash, and handed it to Muffet.

 

You also stuck a couple of bills in the tips jar, and you swear that out of everything you’d done so far, Muffet was most pleased with that. Oh well, small businesses have to stay afloat somehow, right?

 

With one last smile in Muffet’s direction, you walked over to the table that Sans had set your food down at. “i could have payed.” He said once you sat down. “Yes, but I wanted to. I like taking care of friends.” You didn’t even realize the effect of calling him a friend had on Sans.

 

It filled him with a sort of warmth in his ribcage and made his smile feel a little less forced.

 

“Taking care of friends doesn’t mean you gotta buy them everything.” He reminded. “Yes, but I like seeing the pleasant surprise on their faces when I do, except, you haven’t been very expressive so far… I think it has something to do with your permanent smile.”

 

Although, you had seen him in states of surprise and focus before, and wondered every time he blinked how his solid bone face could be so flexible. You wanted to ask to feel his face, but him thinking you were completely insane, and the threat of Natalie finding out and accusing you of cheating held you back.

 

_“bone-apitite”_

 

One bite out of your tart, and you were already planning to ask if Muffet could do catering for your wedding. “Ths ish grt!”

 

Sans began laughing softly at your display of immaturity, “at least wait until you're finished chewing”

 

With a quick swallow, you shot up in your seat, and pumped your fist into the air. “No! The world must know about this amazing treat!” Your attention turned to a couple who were walking right by the window you were seated next to.

 

With a goofy smile, and tart all over your face, you banged on the widow to get their attention, and once they were looking at you, you held up the tart in one hand, and gave them a huge thumbs up and smile.

 

They nodded their heads, albeit a little scared and confused, and continue walking, giving you a little wave. After waving vigorously back, you sat back down to face Sans, who was now laughing so hard that he was wiping transparent blue tears (?) from his eye sockets.

 

“you are one of the weirdest people i’ve ever met”

 

“No, no, you don’t get it, I’m in love with these tarts. Man, my sister would love this place…”

 

Sans blinked (?) in response, and somehow his bony features managed to show surprise. “you have a sister?” You nodded your head as you wiped your face off, and took a swig of spider cider, making an appreciative noise and pointing to it with wide eyes. After, you composed yourself.

 

“I have six sisters, but Tiana is the oldest of them.” Sans somehow whistled (the more time you were spending with him, the more curious about his anatomy you were getting), and leaned back in his chair after throwing a donut in his mouth. You were able to see a seeming abyss behind his teeth which he actually opened.

 

Cool.

 

“so there’s seven of you?”

 

“Nope, I’ve also got an older brother… actually, there’s a chance you might have met him before. He was stationed on Ebott when you guys surfaced.”

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

“- and Helen was so angry! But she couldn’t find anything about girls wearing tuxes being against the prom dress code!”

 

“wait wait wait, you’re a girl?”

 

“I was born a girl, ya. I’m non-binary, but I still had to follow all of the school rules that applied to females.” You didn’t really mind people asking questions about things lots of people would consider ‘private’ information. It also didn’t bother you _too too_ much when someone misgendered you; as long as they weren’t a jerk when you corrected them.

 

“bim- natalie called you her boyfriend, though?”

 

This question did make you a little hesitant, but you explained anyways. All friendships should be based on honesty. “Back when we first started dating, people started making fun of Natalie for dating me since I was born a girl. Natalie is really sensitive, and I noticed that it was really bothering her. That’s when I said she could call me her boyfriend. She was so cute, she even used to call me her date-friend.”

 

Sans didn’t know what had changed in Natalie to make the sweet girl from your stories turn bitter, but it was clear that you loved her.

 

He just hoped that Natalie loved you, too.

 

“So, casanova, you got a _verta-bea_?”

 

“Nope, I’m a _bone-ifide_ bachelor.”

 

The rest of lunch was filled with puns and laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!
> 
> I know a lot of authors are having this problem coming up... but school for me starts next week. If I can, I'll try to get a chapter out everyday during this week, but starting this weekend, the updates will be spread farther out. I want to finish this work, since I have some issues following things through... so basically I just want to get some stuff out before I'm unable...
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter ⊂◉‿◉つ


	3. chapter three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> while planning your wedding with Natalie, you run into Papyrus

 

Thank goodness you didn’t have to work on Saturdays or Sundays. Yesterday while you were gone Natalie had thrown up multiple times, and broken the alarm clock by throwing it against the wall, thankfully the wall wasn’t damaged. Which meant you had stayed up pretty late that night cleaning both the apartment, and Natalie.

 

Today, you were going out with her, which you were pretty excited about, because you hadn’t had an actual date in weeks. After cleaning up both Natalie and the house when you got home, Natalie asked if you wanted to go out the next day.

 

Of course you agreed.

 

Natalie was wearing a light purple sundress with some low wedge heels, and looking absolutely stunning. You had just put on some dark jeans and a graphic t-shirt.

 

You had both agreed that it was about time you started trying to organize your wedding, which meant checking out locations, and taking her to Muffet’s because you were having her food at your wedding.

 

Hand in hand, you strolled down the sidewalk with Natalie. “Do you have any ideas of how big the wedding should be?” you asked, observing the scarcity of clouds against the blue sky. “Hmmm… we should probably just both make a list and compare them.”

 

“That’s why I like, babe, you’re so smart.” Natalie lightly laughed as you nuzzled her hair. After you finished, though, she sighed.

 

“Are you sure you’re not angry about what happened?”

 

“I could never be angry at you, hun. I love you.”

 

“Thank you…” You tried not to look hurt when she didn’t reply with the same three words. “Always…”

 

Natalie bumped her head into your shoulder and gave you a brilliant smile. “I want to get married outdoors, the weather is perfect in the fall…” You nodded, and tightened your grip on her hand. “Not around any trees, though, I don’t want there to be any gross dead leaves everywhere.” You smiled at her wording, and laughed slightly.

 

“What?” She playfully pouted, “I want this to be perfect, and if rotting leaves are everywhere then it will not be perfect.”

 

“Being able to marry you is perfect enough for me ~”

 

You smiled as she blushed, and realized that you were at Muffet’s. “Here we are, you have to try this food…”

 

Walking in, the bell on the door jingled, alerting Muffet of your entrance. “Back again, dearie? And who is this ~”

 

“My fiance, Natalie. We were just coming in today, because I wanted to show her some of your pastries. We were thinking of asking you to cater for our wedding.” Natalie stepped forward, and shook one of Muffet’s hands as they introduced themselves.

 

“I would be honored, dearies ~” Some of Muffet’s cute little spiders brought a donut over for Natalie to try. She took it tentatively, and thanked the little spiders. After taking one bite, Natalie proceeded to vigorously shake every single one of Muffet’s hands, much to the spider lady’s surprise.

 

“ _Cn_ ge haf dis t r wddeng????” Both you and Muffet chuckled, remembering how similar you’d acted the previous day. Muffet made a hand signal, and more spiders brought over a little brochure-menu.

 

Thanking the spiders, you picked it up, and looked through it. “Thanks, Muffet. This all looks lovely… I’ll be sure to come in once we’ve got everything figured out.”

 

“And for the lovely helpers today…” You put some more money in the tip jar. You had a strong inclination that you wanted to stay on Muffet’s good side, and this and compliments (not that you weren’t happy to provide the cute monster with) were the way to do it.

 

“Um, can I use the bathroom?” Natalie asked, and Muffet pointed her in the direction of the lady’s room. While you were waiting, you made small talk with Muffet, and bought some cupcakes for you and Natalie to snack on during the day.

 

Upon leaving, you were knocked back (thank goodness Natalie was holding the cupcakes) by someone who you had unknowingly walked right into, as you had somehow not seen someone else entering. Looking up, you saw a very tall skeleton.

Unlike Sans’ round face, this skeleton had a longer face, a dazzling smile, and he was wearing outrageously bright colored clothing, that he somehow pulled off? He topped the look off with a red scarf that matched his gloves.

The first name that popped into your head was Papyrus, which you hadn’t realized you’d said out loud until said skeleton puffed out his chest, and began a monologue. “I SEE THAT MY REPUTATION PRECEDES ME… WELL, AS YOU ALREADY KNOW ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, IT IS CUSTOMARY THAT YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF.”

 

You smiled at Papyrus as he helped you up, and draped your arm around Natalie’s shoulders. “I’m ____, and this is my beautiful fiance, Natalie.”

 

“HMM…” Papyrus’ eye sockets narrowed slightly as he brought a bright red colored glove up to his jaw. “I SWEAR I’VE HEARD THAT NAME BEFORE… ____…” Suddenly, he snapped his fingers, the glove somehow not muffling the sound, which was comically loud.

 

“THAT’S IT! YOU WORK IN THE LAB WITH MY FATHER AND BROTHER AND MY FRIEND ALPHYS!! WOWIE, WHAT A NEAT COINCIDENCE!”

 

“Yup, in fact, I hung out with Sans here yesterday.” Papyrus’ smile intensified as he hugged me tightly. “YOU EVEN GOT MY LAZY BROTHER TO PUT EFFORT INTO MAKING FRIENDS?? YOU TRULY ARE AN AMAZING HUMAN, AND IT WOULD ONLY MAKE SENSE THAT YOUR DATE-FRIEND BE JUST AMAZING AS YOU!!” As Papyrus said this, he let me go from the bone-crushing hug to shake Natalie’s free hand.

 

“ARE YOU TWO ON A DATE?”

 

“Yup, we’re planning our wedding!” Natalie answered, holding up her ring for Papyrus to see. “WOWZA, THAT LOOKS EXPENSIVE! BUT TRUE LOVE IS PRICELESS! HAVE A NICE DAY YOU TWO, MAYBE WE COULD EVEN HAVE A DOUBLE DATE SOMETIME WITH MY BOYFRIEND, METTATON!”

 

Natalie’s eyes began to sparkle, probably because Mettaton was one of her favorite celebreties. “HERE, WE CAN EXCHANGE NUMBERS!” He said, getting his phone out, and both you and Natalie followed, you took the cupcakes from Natalie so she could get hers from her purse.

 

After you had all exchanged numbers, and set up a group chat, you and Natalie had parted ways with Papyrus. “He’s dating METTATON, ____, METTATON. We have to go on that date.” Natalie squealed. You nodded your head in agreement, “It sounds like fun to hang out with them… plus we haven’t gone out a lot lately.

 

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Papyrus was out, leaving Sans alone at home since he didn’t have work on the weekends. Which meant that Sans could be lazy until about five when his brother would be done with the errands.

 

The first thing he did when Papyrus left was blip over to Grillby’s to grab some snacks. Which included, but was not limited to, seven bottles of ketchup, three burgers, and at least five servings of fries.

 

The next thing he did was teleport back into his room, empty all the food onto his desk, and throw the food wrappers in his trash tornado. Next he chugged the ketchup, and fell into a heap on his unmade bed.

 

This was the life.

 

Until, Papyrus came home and woke Sans up. “SANS, YOU LAZY BONES! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD MADE A NEW FRIEND??”

 

“what?”

 

“THAT HUMAN NAMED ____!! I SAW THEM AT MUFFET’S TODAY WITH THEIR FIANCE!!” Sans sat up and stretched a bit before plopping right back down.

 

“you did now, huh?”

 

“YES, AND I MUST SAY THAT THEY ARE AN ABSOLUTELY LOVELY COUPLE!!”

 

Sans snorted.

 

“IN FACT, I WAS JUST GOING TO ASK ALPHYS AND UNDYNE IF IT WOULD BE OKAY TO INVITE THEM TO ANIME NIGHT!!”

 

Remembering the way Bimbo acted two nights ago, it would have been an understatement to say that Sans was not pleased with that.

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

“Would you look at that? Papyrus was wondering if we would be able to come to an ‘Anime Night’ at Alphys’ house tomorrow…” You told Natalie, showing her the text.

 

“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen any anime… we should go. Plus Mettaton might be there. Do you think Mettaton watches anime?” Natalie finished her sentence while she primped her hair up.

 

“Are you going anywhere tonight?” It was getting dark outside, and you already knew that Natalie would probably go out to sleep with another one of her ‘friends’, like Tristan.

 

“Nick is picking me up today… we’re going to a bar downtown.”

 

“Okay, stay safe, sweetie.”

 

 

You knew today had been too good to be true.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!
> 
> I don't really have anything else to say, but um...  
> Have a nice day
> 
> ●﹏●


	4. Chapter 4

Natalie got back home at four in the morning in a cab.

 

Jeez, if Nick was going to fuck your fiance, the bastard could at least have made sure she got home safe, and walked her to the door or something… not that he would really want to face you after what he did. Not for a week, at least.

 

Which meant that most of your day consisted of patting Natalie’s back, making her soup, giving her water, holding her hair back whenever she vomited, and doing laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.

 

Thankfully, after a nap, her hangover was finished at around five p.m., which gave you two plenty of time to get ready for anime night, which started at eight. Papyrus had texted you the address, and added you and Natalie to a group chat that included Alphys, Undyne, Sans and himself.

 

Between Sans’ constant flood of puns and memes, Papyrus’ scolding and Alphys’ emoticons as she chatted with Undyne (didn’t they live in the same house??) who was very pumped, you were thoroughly entertained by just watching the banter and making comments here and there while Natalie was getting dressed.

 

You had been informed by Papyrus and Alphys that the appropriate wear was casual, and even so Natalie was still hung up on whether she should wear a large shirt with leggings, or a hoodie with sweatpants. (And that, no, Mettaton was too busy at the moment to join them)

 

Every once in awhile she’d walk into the living room to twirl around and ask you if you liked it. You said you liked everything, which succeeded in flattering her, but not helping her decide.

 

Finally, Natalie had decided on the hoodie with sweatpants, while you had gone for a large t-shirt and basketball shorts.

 

It turned out that Alphys and undyne where only a ten minute drive away, which was rather convenient as you were able to throw together a dip and get some chips before arriving.

 

Alphys answered the door, but in the background you heard conversation and who must have been Undyne shouting “Are the punks here yet?!” Not too long after her comment, a giant blue fish lady with red hair appeared in the doorway, and snatched Alphys up.

 

“YO!! Punks! My name is UNDYNE, AND WE’RE GOING TO BE BESTIES!!”

 

“U-Undyne, p-please, you-you’re going t-to scare th-them…”

 

“Um… hi?”

 

Both of their heads turned to you and Natalie, who was slightly hiding behind you. “FUHUHU!! See?! THEY’RE NOT SCARED!!” Undyne took your hand, and with a grip of iron, shook it. “I’m UNDYNE!!”

 

“My name is ____, and this is Natalie, my fiance.” You pushed Natalie forward a little so she could introduce herself.

 

“H-hi?”

 

Undyne took Natalie’s hand next, and shook it, albeit it looked gentler. “Welcome to ANIME NIGHT!! We have SNACKS, we have PILLOWS, AND WE HAVE ANIME!!” Once again, Undyne started ‘fu-hu-hu-ing’ again, with her hands on her hips.

 

Her excitement was so infectious that you, too, began to laugh loudly. Undyne promptly stopped, and gave you a look. “What? I thought we had a thing going…? No? Just me?”

 

“I KNEW there was something about you I liked, punk!!” Que fist bump that nearly broke your hand. “That reminds me… I brought some dip and chips, I’ll get them from my car real quick…” You waved at Alphys, Undyne and Natalie who walked in, all the while trying not to cry.

 

When they were out of sight, you shook your hand out while making ‘ow’ noises, and walked to your car. “I should work out more....”

 

Scenarios of you beating up cliche bad guys with comic book phrases, like ‘KA-POW’ in the background filled your head.

 

You should definitely work out more.

 

Grabbing the dip, you jogged back to the front door, and entered the house. It had a surprising amount of breakable items for a house that Undyne lived in, and in the small dining room, instead of a table there was a piano.

 

It made you wish you hadn’t quit piano lessons back in first grade.

 

“I’m back,” You called out, making your way to the living room, and setting the food on the coffee table. “HUMAN!! I’M GLAD YOU AND YOUR DATE-FRIEND COULD JOIN US!! I’M ALSO GLAD YOU HADN’T LOST MY NUMBER, LIKE SOME OF MY OTHER HUMAN FRIENDS!!”

 

Aw… poor baby… you accepted his hug, which was a little too tight, but didn’t prompt any pain… unlike that fist bump…

 

Behind Papyrus was Sans, who greeted you with a lazy grin. “heya, bud. ice to see you again.” You arched your brow in confusion, but the pun was soon realized when you took his hand to pull him into a hug.

 

“that’S COLD!!

 

That smiley little skeleton had an ice cube in his hand! Thank the gods that you used the hand that you fist bumped Undyne with... “SANS!! DO NOT PRANK OUR NEW HUMAN FRIEND!!”

 

“It’s all good, Paps, an ice cube is nothing to ruin a friendship over,”

 

Papyrus wiped his brow in relief, as Sans slipped his bony hands back into his jacket pockets, “right, Sans?” He looked back up, a smile still present, but otherwise he looked confused.

 

“yea?”

 

“That’s why you won’t mind this…?” As quick as lightning, you pulled Sans closer to you by his sleeve, and dumped the ice cube down the back of his shirt. “VICTORY!!” You high fived yourself, and Undyne, who quickly started laughing at his expression.

 

Alphys had her red face in her hands, trying not to make a noise, Natalie was sitting in an armchair, already burritoed in a blanket, and snickering quietly, and Papyrus scolded Sans. “SEE, BROTHER? KARMA. KARMA IN THE FORM OF SOLIDIFIED WATER ADMINISTERED BY THE UNIVERSE.”

 

“the universe?”

 

“YES, SANS. BY THE UNIVERSE. IT USED ____ AS A VESSEL. THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR PRANKING FRIENDS.”

 

“that’s just _cold_.”

 

“NO!! DO NOT RUIN THIS MOMENT!!” While Papyrus sulked over the pun, you addressed Sans again with a shrug. “Sorry, revenge is a dish best served _chilled_.”

 

“DON’T FALL INTO THE ELABORATE TRAP OF WORDPLAY, HUMAN!!”

 

Sans returned your shrug, “i don’t mind, the cold _just goes right through me_.”

 

“STOP!!”

 

Sans winked (?), and teleported to sit on the couch. “Let’s watch some ANIME NOW!!” Undyne picked up Alphys, and Papyrus did the same to you as they jumped on the couch, landing you all in a huge dog pile.

 

“This is… not as uncomfortable as you’d think it’d be.”

 

“speak for yourself.” Came the muffled voice of Sans, who was somewhere buried underneath all of you. “Sorry!” you clambered out of the pile, rolling Undyne and Alphys onto the floor, luckily cushioned by a humongous pile of pillows where they proceeded to cuddle, and leaving Sans and Papyrus on the couch where Sans was stretched out, and Papyrus sat with his knees pulled up to his rib cage.

 

You walked over to the armchair, and slung yourself on top of Natalie. You wiggled your eyebrows at her. “Hey, come here often?” She giggled, and pushed you off of her, landing you on the floor.

 

“Oh! The stinging pain of rejection, how you wound me so!”

 

“Keep your suffering to yourself! Time for some MEW MEW KISSIE CUTIE!!”

 

“The skeleton brothers… my last… hope…” You crawled over to the couch, where Papyrus scooped you up, and sat you next to him, on top of Sans’ legs. “You’re an angel, Papyrus, an angel.”

 

“Nyehehehe… NOW SHOOSH, IT’S TIME FOR JAPANESE CARTOONS!!”

 

The room quieted down as the show started.

 

It was very interesting. Between the warrior-princess neko-girls, and the evil wizard, Akira-San, trying to steal all of the magical jewels so he could corrupt them, robbing the magical neko-girls of their kiss power and take over their kingdoms, all while they were attending a high school and part of an after school club/band, and putting on concerts for all of japan - there was a lot of plot to keep up with.

 

Right now Papyrus had called dibs on being Kaiya-chan, while you had quickly claimed Naoko-chan, Undyne was Sachi-chan, and Alphys was Yoko-chan (who had romantic tension so thick between each other that you could cut it with Kaiya-chan’s awesome sword). Sans and Natalie hadn’t picked any characters (for obvious reasons, all of the princesses were already taken…), but you’d been secretly comparing Sans to a lazy stray cat that the girls encountered outside of a cafe whenever they got icecream together.

 

“NOo!” You cried, watching as Naoko-chan fell for Akira-san’s devastatingly good-looked alterego, Sora-kun. The worst part was that Akira actually looked like he liked her back!! This was not a ship that could go on! “You can’t accept the gift!! YOU CAN’T LIKE HIM!!” In despair, you clutched Papyrus’ arm, and fake sobbed into his shoulder.

 

“I know!” Alphys piped up. “And it gets even worse, becauseinMewMewTwotheypresuetheshipandhalfoftheshowisaboutheracceptinghimforwhoheisandit’sjustlike” a huge breath, “He’s a piece of garbage!!” She then threw a handful of popcorn at the tv.

 

Undyne nodded. “And it’s so obvious that she was meant for Yasuo-kun! Sure, he’s a little messy and sort of a jerk, but they’d be SO DARN CUTE!!” You, Papyrus, Natalie and Alphys all made sounds of agreement.

 

Sans was snoring, as he had already fallen asleep.

 

Looking around the room once more, your eyes landed on the bowl of dip, the chips were gone and the previous contents of the dip had been scraped off of the edges. This… you’d forgotten what it felt like to have friends.

 

Tilting your head back to lay it on Papyrus’ shoulder, you rested your eyes for a bit.

 

 


	5. BONUS CHAPTER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick bonus chapter

“____-chan!” You look up to see Nats, the girl you’ve been crushing on walking over. In a fluster, you awkwardly wave back. “Hi, Nats-chan,” She sits by you on the ground. You’re both on the school roof right now, looking over at the city.

 

 

“I didn’t see you this morning in class, so I got worried.” She explained, making eye contact. Oh no! You thought, my one weakness! “I thought you might be sick, so I was going to visit your house, but then I remembered that I don’t know where you live. I tried to ask one of your friends, but they weren’t there either.”

 

 

Looking down, you fiddled with your hands. “I-I live with my friends, and we missed the bus this morning because… because Dyne-chan lost her uniform. Don’t worry! We found it… so, um, we all ran to school.”

 

 

Your blush darkened when Nats started to laugh. “I can imagine you running with toast in your mouth like an anime girl!”

 

 

“Don’t laugh! It was Alph-chan’s idea!”

 

 

Suddenly, the both of you were interrupted by the door to the roof opening. It was your upperclassman, Sans-kun. “Senpai!” You exclaimed. A quick glance at Nats told you that she was annoyed at him. For what, though?

 

“hi, ____-chan, nats.” Sans-kun and Nats-chan shared a stare. 

 

 

“Not to be rude, senpai, but you’re interrupting our conversation”

 

 

“am i? oh well, anyways, paps-kun sent me to get you, ____-chan. something about your band meeting.”

 

 

“O-oh, okay. Sorry, Nats-chan. If I’m late for a meeting, Dyne-chan will suplex me…” Nats-chan smiled at you, and gave a small shrug. “It’s not your fault.”

 

 

After waving to Nats-chan, you walked over to Sans-kun. “is it okay if i walk you?” he asked. You nodded your head. Although you’d only met Sans-kun recently, he’d been pretty nice to you, and you didn’t want to do anything to offset that. Plus, making new friends is great!

 

 

“D-did Paps-kun say where we were meeting?” You asked, noticing the random turns you were taking. “there is no meeting.”

 

 

“W-what?” 

 

 

“you heard me, there is no meeting.” 

 

 

“Then why did you say there was?” You checked all possible escapes just in case Sans-kun attacked you. Natalie sent lots of minions to do her dirty work, and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if Sans-kun, who you’d only just met was sent by her.

 

 

“i wanted to get-har (get her, and guitar) away from you.”

 

 

“Nats-chan?” Ignoring the pun, your brain decided that he only logical explanation was that Sans-kun wanted to get you alone to fight. You quietly prepared yourself for a transformation.

 

 

“ya, i don’t like her much. something’s off about her, y’know?” Confused, you let your guard down, and tilted your head.

 

 

“What do you mean? She’s really nice.”

 

 

“she’d have you believe that, huh?”

 

 

Before you could ask Sans-kun to elaborate, the building shook, and a crash was heard outside. You ran to a window, and saw a huge crater where the school courtyard had been. “oh well. duty calls, right?”

 

 

You looked back to Sans-kun, only to see that he was nowhere in sight. More than a little baffled, you jumped through the window, and began your transformation into… a warrior neko-princess!

 

 

When you reached the scene of the crater, you were greeted with your friends and fellow prince and princesses. Paps-kun, who was wielding a wicked sword made out of bone, Dyne-chan, whose fists were surrounded by bright blue electricity, and Alph-chan, who handled a double-edged battle axe that was bigger than her.

 

 

They simultaneously turned their heads to you, and shouted “What took you so long?!” You grinned, and summoned your own weapon after yelling back a reply.

 

 

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Natalie oversaw the battle going on between the magical neko-prince/princesses and one of her servants.

 

 

“what, jealous?”

 

 

She turned around to see Sans leaning on the frame of the doorway, idly twirling a bone on the tip of one of his phalanges. Natalie took one last look at the fight, and walked past Sans to go down

 

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

You woke up with a start, and looked around. You were leaned up against Papyrus’ shoulder, and Sans’ legs had made their way on top of your thighs The anime was still going, but everybody was asleep. Wondering why you were awake, you tried to remember your dream, but couldn’t.

 

 

With a shake of your head, you carefully got up, wrote a quick note on a post-it, stuck it on Undyne’s forehead, picked Natalie up bridal style off of the bed, and as quietly a possible, went to your car.

 

 

During the drive, you looked in the rearview mirror to see Natalie sleeping soundly. You smiled, and continued to drive, only remembering that you left your bowl at Undyne and Alphys’ house once you were in bed.

 

 

“Darn it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you want you can pick your super-cool anime weapon
> 
> +｡ﾟφ(ゝω・｀○)+｡ﾟ


	6. chapter five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just some drama
> 
> (ｏ´・ε・｀ｏ) what can you do?

You were woken at three in the morning by your phone.

 

You rolled over on your empty bed (Natalie must have left sometime while you were sleeping), and grabbed the ringing device. It was Alphys. WIth a sigh, you clicked the accept call button, and put the phone up to your ear.

“Hello?” You sleepily greeted, rubbing your eyes with your free hand, and sitting up to rest your head on your knees.

 

“_-___? Tha-thank Asgore y-you’re okay, it’sjustthatyouweregonethismorningand-”

 

“Hold up, can you speak a little slower?” You yawned, “I’m not fully awake yet,”

 

“I, I, I - w-we woke u-up this m-morning, an-and N-natalie and y-you weren’t th-there… U-undyne w-was p-pretty upset u-until she, she s-saw the n-note you left… it was a-actually kind of f-funny t-to see her r-run around with the, the n-note st-stuck to h-her forehead…”

 

“Sorry for making you worry, I just didn’t want to overstay my welcome.”

 

“O-oh! U-um, well, U-uh, the A-anime n-nights are k-kind of sleepovers… y-you didn’t know, th-though. We w-were just worried s-someone m-might have, have t-taken y-you… it’s s-silly…”

 

“Why would someone have taken us?” You asked. It’s kind of odd to see that someone is gone and immediately assume that they’d been taken.

 

“Th-there are some g-groups o-out there who, who d-don’t r-really care f-for monster s-sympathizers... “

 

Well now you felt bad. Trying to lighten the mood, you gave a small laugh. “Well, don’t worry about us.. I’m pretty strong, y’know? Maybe not as strong as Buff Fish over there, but I can hold my own.”

 

“O-okay… S-sorry t-to bother you…. Um, y-you a-also l-left y-your bowl h-here..”

 

“It’s no bother to hear from you, really! And, uh, as for the bowl… if you could just bring it to work or something, that would be great.”

 

“S-sure! H-have a n-nice n-night.. O-or morning….”

 

“You too, Alph. Bye.”

 

“G-goodbye.” You hung up, and fell back into your bed. Five minutes later, when you were just beginning to drift off, your phone’s ringtone for your boss, Gaster, started up. “Ugh, what’s up with these people and being up a three?”

 

You unlocked the phone to see that Gaster had sent you a text.

 

 

 

_**BOSS MAN** _

**3:53**

**There has been an accident at the lab, due to the conditions currently being unsuitable to humans, you will not need to come into work today. - W.D. Gaster**

 

 

 

It was kind of cute how Gaster signed off every text. But what kind of lab accident happened at- you checked the time- 3:55 A.M.?!

 

You sent back a simple ‘k’, and flopped down in bed once again.

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

Natalie scrolled through her phone as the man next to her slept.

 

It was eight in the morning, so you would be at work already. Natalie had snuck away at sometime in the early morning to get some drinks with Tristan again. Her head was killing her, and she was pretty sure that looking at her phone wasn’t going to help her, but she couldn’t help staring at your contact information.

 

Your smiling face greeted Natalie when she pressed the home button. She’d cropped her own face out so that she didn’t have to see the duckface she’d been making. The same photo with you cropped out was posted on her tinder account.

 

Why was she such a bitch…?

 

And, more importantly, why did you still love her?

 

Natalie was constantly in between hating you and loving you. She hated how you’d roped her into a relationship she wasn’t sure if she wanted, she hated that you made her feel so loved and valued.

 

Mostly because she wanted to hate you for stealing years of her life away, she wanted to blame you for making her always come back to you in the end- wanted to believe that you were manipulating her, and using her- but for what? You were so innocent and pure, and she’d always told you that you deserved someone just as great as yourself.

 

Your love was a trap.

 

She shouldn’t have said yes to dating you back in college, because now, if she tried to end the relationship, there would be heartbreak on both sides. And you’d forgive her, probably still house and feed her.

 

Still help her through her alcohol addiction and stick up for her when someone called her a whore.

 

She’d tried. She hated how hard it was to look you in the eyes sometimes, when you knew what she’d done, you knew and you didn’t care.

 

She hated that she was a dirty cheater, she hated that she’d had you pay for her boob job, and she hated that you still loved her. What was your limit?

 

Natalie thought that maybe if she made you hate her that you’d leave, and every time that you told her you loved her, her heart broke a little more because she loved you too, and she could never bring herself to breakup with you.

 

That would mean that she’d be cutting you out of her life, and she couldn’t do that. Not to herself, and not to you.

 

You were the air that Natalie’s lungs ached for when she walked into a smoke-filled bar, the rock that she needed when she was too drunk to walk. You were the light in this big dark scary world of adulthood, where she didn’t know how to function.

 

And you were so, so good.

 

Natalie opened her contacts back up, and contemplated whether or not to call you.

 

The man next to her shifted. Natalie clicked the phone off.

 

“Are you awake?” She asked softly.

 

Tristan turned his head towards her, bags under his eyes and his hair a mess, and propped himself up against the headrest. “You didn’t send the audio to your boyfriend again, did you?”

 

Natalie bristled at the term ‘boyfriend,’ and the urge to correct Tristan rose within her, but she knew that she was in no place to do so.

 

The brunette male carried on, “because if that got out, my girlfriend would end it like that. She isn’t some freak that doesn’t care.”

 

“They’re not a freak.”

 

“Ya ya, whatever. Listen, you gotta be out by noon, Lizzie’s coming to visit.”

 

“I’ll call ____.” Natalie told Tristan, collecting her clothes as she made her way to the bathroom. She didn’t want to bother you at work, but she didn’t have any money for a cab, and she knew you’d pick her up.

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

Natalie watched your car pull up. You rolled down the window, looking tired. Natalie felt her shame crawling down her back. “Sorry about bothering you while you were at work…” She said.

 

“Don’t worry about it, hun. There was an accident at the lab and apparently it wasn’t safe for me to be there.”

 

Gods this was awkward. How come being picked up from Tristan’s before never prompted this sort of embarrassment? Maybe because Natalie was always too drunk to care. Damn it, not all effects of the alcohol had worn off, her head was still pounding.

 

Natalie got into the passenger seat, dreading the car ride that was sure to be filled with silence. She needed to say something to break the silence. Anything….

 

“So, did you have fun at Alphys’ house last night?” You asked , keeping your eyes on the road. Natalie made a humming sound, trying to pick her words. “It was fun, even if Mettaton wasn’t there…”

 

…….

 

No! The conversation was going to fall flat, she needed to add something! “But- um, um…”

 

“Oh! I-I, Sans threatened me!”

 

“He what?”

 

“When you were getting the dip, Sans approached me, and his eye sockets got all dark and creepy, and he threatened me.” Her voice bordering on smug, Natalie was proud that she remembered the event.

 

It was a little disturbing how the laid-back skeleton could go from lazy comedian to frightening nightmare material, but Natalie didn’t really think much of it.

 

Natalie looked back over to you, only to see one of the most terrifying things on the face of the planet; you were angry. “I’m going to talk to him, don’t worry, hun.”

 

Why did Natalie feel so bad?

 

The drive wasn’t too long, and before Natalie knew it, the agonizing silence that accompanied your anger was over. She quickly bust out of the car, and ran into the house. You came in a little later, phone up to your ear, and a scowl on your face.

 

“What the hell did you say to her?” You turned your head in Natalie’s direction, making her gasp, and hide behind the couch. “A fucking _joke?_ You think threatening people can pass as a _joke_? Stick to puns, pal. It’s a safer bet.”

 

“I thought that if you were going to threaten my fiance that I might return the favor.”

 

“Don’t you fucking try to justify what you did… Just… Look, this isn’t a conversation we need to have on the phone. I’ll see you at work tomorrow…. Sorry about cursing,” You sighed, “I’m not thinking straight.”

 

Natalie felt a lump grow in her throat, and her eyes started to burn. This was all her fault. She always ruined things for you.

 

“Nats? Something wrong?”

 

“I- I’m sorry!”

 

“For what? You have nothing to be sorry for.”

 

Natalie looked up at you, and felt a hot tear run down her cheek. “I can’t be here right now…” You watched as Natalie walked past you, and made intense eye contact before she exited through the front door.

 

In shock, you sat on the couch, and buried your face in your hands.

 

_“What did I do?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was the last chapter for this week, I'm starting school next week, so I'll have to figure out a way to balance my schedule. Until then, I'll try to update, but the update times might be a bit random 
> 
> つ´Д`)つ
> 
> Sorry...


	7. chapter six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some hurt/comfort hereeeeeeeeee

 

 

 

Sans didn’t know exactly what to expect when he came into work on Tuesday, based off of your choice words, he was prepared for a prickly co-worker.

 

Except, he hadn’t seen you once all day. Maybe it was because he’d been expecting you, that he noticed how sparse you seemed to be. He’d checked just about every lab for you, and stood in the break room for about an hour hoping to catch sight of you. Sans had even checked the fridge to see in you’d put a lunch in there. You hadn’t.

 

So, naturally, as you did when you were worried about a seemingly reckless friend of yours who you’d met nearly a week ago, and recently got in a fight with, he tried to call you. And it went straight to voicemail. It was at that point when Sans got worried.

 

He honestly tried to ignore the voice at the back of his mind that was whispering all the things that might have happened to you. You could have gotten in a car accident on your way to work, you could have gotten robbed last night - you could be _dead_.

 

He almost shed a magical tear in relief when he saw Alphys walking down the hall. “yo, alph.” He greeted nonchalantly, trying to pretend that he wasn’t losing his mind over the fact that he hadn’t seen you, because he knew that it was completely irrational. She looked up at him, and smiled. “H-hi, Sans.”

 

“so, have you seen ____ around anywhere? been tryin’ to find ‘em.” Alphys tensed, and tried to avoid eye contact with Sans while sweating profusely. “Y-ya…” Sans nodded his head in encouragement for her to go on. “Th-they a-asked me, me not to-to t-tell y-you w-w-where th-they w-were…” Her nervousness caused her stuttering to worsen, as she wrung her clawed hands.

 

“come on, y’think i’m gonna hurt ‘em or something? you know me better than that.” Alphys looked away, and rubbed her arm, before coming to a decision. “Th-they came in-into work late…” Alphys looked back up at Sans, “p-please d-don’t do a-anything to upset th-them… th-they seemed r-really s-sad… they’re in o-our office…”

 

Sans grinned at Alphys. “thanks, alph, i just wanted to talk to them.” Before he could leave, though, Alphys grabbed the sleeve of his lab coat. “D-did y-you really th-threaten N-Natalie?” Sans stiffened. So had ____ told her, too? Alphys obviously took his silence for a yes, as her features hardened, and her grip on his sleeve tightened.

 

“I-I th-thought you g-got over th-this ‘hating h-humans’ th-thing…” It was true that while Sans had been wary of any human that he passed after the barrier had broken, not even letting Papyrus converse with them, and going out of his way to make trouble for any that befriended his circle of friends, he’d stopped being so cold towards them after realizing that not every single one had a vendetta against monsters.

 

“it’s not because she’s human…” That was a lie. Even though he tried not to be skeptical of humans, the fact that Natalie wasn’t a monster did add to the list of reasons why she shouldn’t be trusted. Although, knowing that she was a no good cheating drunk also piled onto the ‘why i don’t like her’ list.

 

“Sh-she ran a-away, Sans!” Alphys suddenly exclaimed, letting go of Sans’ sleeve right after to cover her mouth with her hands, probably not supposed to be having said that. Sans rolled his eye lights, and crossed his arms. “so what? don’t know if you noticed after working with ____ for almost a year, but natalie seems to do that a lot.” Sans watched as the yellow drake’s shoulders fell. “I-I know, a-a-and, I don’t l-like it a-anymore th-than you d-do, but, but…” Alphys suddenly looked back up at Sans with tears in her eyes, making him feel guilty for being so harsh. “I-I’ve never s-seen them so _s-sad_ before.”

 

Sans sighed, placing a skeletal hand on the short monster’s shoulder. “sorry for bein’ so harsh…” he tried to comfort her with a smile, which she returned, albeit wobbly. “i’ll see if i can cheer ‘em up.” Alphys took a deep breath, and smiled a bit more genuine. “Th-thank you, Sans.”

 

After they parted ways, Sans continued to Your and Alphys’ office. The door was decorated in drawings of anime characters done by Alphys, and he guessed that the other pictures that had a sketchier quality to them were yours. With a bit of hesitance, Sans knocked on the door.

 

“Come in!” Came your cheery response, although there was an undertone of exhaustion that was all too familiar to him. As quietly as possible, Sans turned the knob, and opened the door, taking a quick peek in before fully walking in. You stood with your back turned to him, seemingly going through some papers.

 

“hey.”

 

“O-oh, Sans! Didn’t expect you to visit…” Your tone was still light, even though Sans could hear faint sniffling from across the room. You didn’t turn around. “are you okay, bud?” Another sniffle, poorly hid by a shuffle of the papers you were holding.

 

“Y-ya. Why do you ask? Is it about yesterday, because I’m r-really, really sorry. I just wasn’t thinking right, and I ended up saying some really hurtful things, and I just wanted to say that I didn’t mean any-” you cut yourself off with a gut(if he had a gut)-wrenching sob.

 

“whoa whoa whoa, buddy,” Sans quickly crossed the room as you dropped the papers you were holding. Gently, he grabbed your shoulder, and turned you around to face him. His soul ached as he took in your puffy eyes that were shining with unshod tears, while other ones that had already escaped ran down your face. Your bottom lip quivered as you looked Sans in the eye sockets.

 

“why are you crying?”

 

You turned your face away from Sans, and bit your lower lip before uttering a reply. “I-its just allergies. Human thing.” Sans nearly growled, clutching your shoulder harder, “allergies do not cause you to make that sound.” Frisk had spring allergies, you couldn’t trick him with that.

 

“What sound, you mean _this_ one?” You made a snuffling sound like the ones you’d made earlier, and continued, “because that’s the noise your nose makes when it’s clogged due to allergies, so-”

 

“bs, you know what i’m talking about. don’t lie to me. is it because natalie ran away again?” your expression froze at the mention of Natalie, and more tears began to spill from your eyes. “I g-guess Alphys told you then, huh?”

 

Wrenching yourself from Sans’ grip, you wiped your tears away with the sleeve of your coat. “right after she told me that she knew about me threatening natalie” You let out a deep breath, and smiled ruefully.

 

“Guess I am something of a hypocrite, right? I’m so _stupid_ , didn’t even know how much she was hurting, no, I did know… I just never addressed it… now I’m paying the price…” You tiredly walked over to your chair, and sat down heavily.

 

“Golly, what you must think of me… we’ve barely known each other for a week, and I’m already having a breakdown in front of you. I always was such a crybaby…” In a sudden motion, Sans slammed his skeletal hands down on your desk, causing you to flinch back in surprise.

 

“don’t talk about yourself that way, it’s not your fault that natalie doesn’t appreciate you!” Sans hated hearing you talk about yourself in such a deprecating way, and he suspected it was only the surface of your self-hatred.

 

“You don’t understand, Sans. She’s been cheating on me for years, why didn’t I change? I didn’t do one thing, I should have been better, I should have tried more. But I thought that things might change, that we’d still love each other and get married, and adopt a kid or something.”

 

The way you sounded so defeated, so hopeless reminded Sans of himself, asking ‘what’s the point?’ at the beginning of the reset, not allowing himself to really live until only recently. “...sometimes you can do everything, you can try harder than you ever have in your life, you can keep up as much hope as your soul can hold, but it's still not enough. and it’ll never be enough, because in the end… it’s not in your hands…”

 

How many times had Sans tried to save his friends, his brother, only to watch them fade into dust, slipping away like sand through his phalanges? Until he’d stopped trying altogether, waiting until the kid reached the judgement hall to deal justice?

 

Sans was broken out of his dark thoughts by the sound of your crying. It was unsubdued, and broken sounding. Sans calmly rubbed circles into your back, murmuring comforting words. He couldn’t help but notice that your cry face was significantly better looking than Bimbo’s.

 

“I just- I just don’t understand!” You buried your face into your hands, dragging your hands upwards so that they ran through your hair. “She’s never ran away while so- so sober!” It was pretty sad to think that the reason this upset you so much was because of the fact that for once, Bimbo _wasn’t_ drunk off of her ass.

 

Once you’d calmed down, you looked up at Sans with grateful eyes. “Thank you, Sans. I feel a lot better now, you have no idea..” With that, you stood up again, and went to go pick up the papers that you had previously dropped. Before you could, though, Sans caught you.

 

“maybe… you should go home. y’know… wait for natalie to come back?” Sans cringed at the idea of Bimbo coming back, drunk, and smelling of some random man, while you accepted her with open arms.

 

The smile you wore made up for it though, it lit up the room, Sans not having noticed how dark it was. It was almost like watching Papyrus’ smile…

 

“You’re right Sans.” You hugged him quickly, and he heard you somewhere in the back of his mind saying that you were going to talk to Gaster, while his mind was frozen, only able to focus on how soft you were.

 

He stood there for a long time after you left, only spurred out of his own thoughts by Alphys walking in, asking where you’d gone.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
> Also, sorry for the delay! Not only did school start (it was cancelled for a week, but I still got homework??), but a hurricane totally happened... so.... I live near houston, and stuff, so... Luckily I didn't get flooded out, but I've got a leak in mah house, isn't that just great?
> 
> ┐(´д`)┌
> 
>  
> 
> SO, um, stress. And headaches, and trying to write.


	8. chapter seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a slightly longer than usual chapter, and I'd like to apologize again for the amount of time it took me to update... I didn't realize I'd get soooo much homework...
> 
> But, please enjoy! And be careful, there's a little saucy part ~~~~~ will be marked with my saucy squiggles~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Natalie stared at the cup of tea in her hands. The mug was pleasantly warm in her hands, and steam wafted up to kiss her face. She couldn’t look her friends in the face.

 

It was almost worse to look at them after what she’d done than to look at you, and that was saying something.

 

Alyanna was sporting a bump on her belly that Natalie had only ever seen on Friendpage, and just knowing that Alyanna and Alexander were sitting side by side on the couch across from her, snuggled into each other’s sides hurt. At least their high school relationship had worked out.

 

This was, their second child, after all. She should know since she was the first’s godmother. Little Josel was the sweetest thing, but Natalie never visited anymore. After taking a sip of the steaming tea (her heart ached, remembering how you prefered tea over coffee), she looked up at her old friends.

 

Alyanna was a small Filipino woman, even a couple inches shorter than Natalie, with long dark hair, a wonderful complexion, two rosy lips, chocolate eyes, and a blindingly white smile.

 

Alexander, on the other hand, was extremely tall, as well as one fourth russian, and it certainly showed in his sharp features. His hair was a darker brown, and his eyes a lazy hazel that didn’t match the intelligence she knew he possessed.

 

Josel was a wonderful blend of the two, being a bit short for his age, but having his mother’s beautiful complexion, and his father’s eyes. His hair was on the verge of being black, but in the sun it was revealed to be brown.

 

“How’s the baby?” Natalie asked, trying to make small talk. “We both know that you didn’t come here, dressed like _that_ ,” Alyanna gestured to Natalie’s short dress, and back up to her messy makeup, “to ask how the baby was. What’s eatin’ you, hun?”

 

Natalie fidgeted slightly, looking back to the room where she knew Josel was playing, and back at the couch to where her friends were seated.

 

Alyanna sighed in realization, and patted her husband’s leg. “Hun, can you take Josey out for a walk? I’m thinking we need to have some girl talk.” Alexander nodded in response, and made his way to Josel’s room.

 

Moments later, the kid was exclaiming ‘to the park we go!’, while riding on his father’s shoulders, and when he spotted Natalie, his grin got even wider, if possible.

 

“Auntie Nat!” The child scrambled down from his perch to give Natalie a hug, which she reciprocated with one arm, balancing the teacup that was on a cute little plate in the other.. “Why do you smell funny?” He asked after a moment, wrinkling his nose in distaste, but not letting go. What a sweet kid.

 

Natalie laughed, and patted his head. “It’s because I had to run here, kiddo.” She replied.

 

“WOW!” Josel looked up with awe in his eyes. “You live, like, really far away!” A blush rose on Natalie’s cheeks as she swatted the semi-praise away, “it’s not _that_ far, really.” Alyanna chuckled as well, and for a moment, Natalie could almost forget that she ran away, and that when she went back, you would likely want nothing to do with her.

 

She should be happy. This is what she wanted, right?

 

But, the moment was crushed as Alexander nudged his son’s shoulder, reminding him of their trip to the park. “Bye, Auntie Nat!” Josel waved as he skipped out the door, holding his father’s hand.

 

“He’s getting older…” Natalie commented, staring at the door, even though it was shut, and they’d been gone for almost a minute.

 

“Ya. he’s missed you and ____, you know.” Reminded of what she’d been doing instead of spending time with her godchild, Natalie felt another wave of guilt wash over. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around much.” She apologized, taking a sip of the burning tea to calm her nerves.

 

She barely registered the pain. All she could think about was how you would have said it needed more sugar.

 

“It’s okay, you must be busy with ____ planning your wedding, after all.” Natalie took another sip of the tea. It hadn’t cooled down in the several seconds since her last sip. She put down the plate on a coaster that was conveniently placed on the coffee table in front of her. That’s when she broke down.

 

The next few minutes were a flurry of tears, back pats, and broken sentences. The guilt of what her absence must have been doing to you, no doubt something similar to this, spurred her on. “There there, tell me what’s wrong…” Alyanna comforted, soothing voice helping Natalie keep her head over the waves of feelings that she was drowning in.

 

It was at least a few more minutes before Natalie was able to calm her breath enough to speak like a normal person, and when she did, it was like a floodgate had been opened, she couldn’t stop, talking about how happy you could make her, about how she felt terrible for never feeling satisfied, about how she’d been cheating for almost a year, ever since you’d gotten your job at the lab.

 

And when he was done, Natalie bit her lip, and looked up to Alyanna to see how disgusted she was with her actions, mentally preparing herself for a full-on rejection from her lifelong friend. But instead, all she saw was caring and sympathy.

 

It made her cry more. When Natalie calmed down again, Alyanna was still there. “So, I’m just a terrible person, huh?” Natalie finished with a bitter laugh, gesturing down to her short dress, and makeup that had almost run completely off from her tears.

 

Idly she wondered how her body could hold so much fluid, the effects from her hangover long gone, instead replaced with the stuffy feeling in her head and nose caused by crying.

 

It was only when Alyanna took one of Natalie’s hands in her own, that Natalie realized she was shaking like a leaf. Gods, why was she such a mess? “Not at all, Nats. You have to remember, you and ____ got together when you were really young. Neither of you had ever been in a relationship before, and all you had to go on was friendship,” Alyanna began to rub circles into Natalie’s hand, helping her stop trembling.

 

“Having said that, it’s not right what you’re doing to ____, you’re both my friends, and I don’t want to pick sides, but cheating isn’t right. Maybe you should take a step back? If you don’t feel like ____ can provide everything you need in a relationship, is it really the best idea to get married?”

 

With wide eyes, and a fear in her chest, Natalie tightened her grip on her friend’s hand. “I-I can’t break up with them!” She exclaimed, “I know I probably should… but you should know better than anyone what it’s like with ____. They make you feel like you’re the only person in the world… they tell jokes, and give compliments like they’re made from them, they’re so smart, but they don’t rub it in your face. They’d do anything for their friends…”

 

Looking out of the window at trees swaying in the wind, Natalie felt a tear roll down her cheek. How much more could she cry before she ran out of tears? It seemed like all of her life all she’d done is cry, and every time you’d offer her your shoulder.

 

When she had panic attacks, you always seemed to know where she was, and be there to offer her a warm drink and a blanket.

 

“They love me. Like nobody else has ever loved me.”

 

With a soft voice, Alyanna inquired something that Natalie had pondered over late at night, when she got home drunkenly, and opened your door quietly to peak into your room to make sure you’d made it home safe, that you were still there.

 

“But do you love them?”

 

“So much that it makes my heart hurt.” She replied instantly.

 

“Then clean up!” Alyanna roughly patted Natalie’s back, standing up to offer Natalie a hand. “My baby was right, you do smell! But I have a feeling it has more to do with why you’re dressed like that, and less to do with the impromptu run you went on!”

 

Natalie laughed, more in relief than in amusement, but she smiled, and took her friend’s hand nevertheless. The rest of the day consisted of Natalie having a spa day with Alyanna, who had texted her husband to keep Josel entertained and out of the house until dinner, proclaiming that it was a girl’s day.

 

By the time that the sun was setting, Natalie was scrubbed clean, smelling nicer than she had in months, and wearing a comfortable sweater of Alyanna’s, and a skirt that went mid-calf on the short filipino, but only came to Natalie’s knees. It was still longer than any skirt that Natalie owned, although, she reasoned, it _was_ pretty conservative.

 

When Alexander and his son came home, to the dinner that Natalie had helped prepare, she was invited to stay over to eat (Alyanna had insisted, because Natalie had helped make dinner), and even game night, since Josel had a break from kindergarten the following day, and was able to stay up later than usual, his school was having a staff meeting day, and school was out.

 

Her mind only strayed to how lonely you must be feeling, how worried you probably were a few times. She didn’t know whether she felt worse about the fact that she was trying to push the image of your anxious face out of her mind, or that she didn’t feel the need to call and tell you she was alright.

 

“Alright, Josel. It’s bed time.” Alyanna said, picking up the pieces of the board game that had gotten scattered after Alexander had won, and dramatically ‘made it rain’ with the play money, with Josel catching as much as he could. The young boy, just as dramatically rolled his eyes before giving his mother a kiss on the cheek, and following his father to his room.

 

“Bye, Auntie Nat! Visit again soon please!” Natalie nodded her head, waving slightly with a gentle smile. A voice in the back of her head reminded her that she didn’t deserve being the godparent of such a sweet child, but Natalie pushed it away, facing Alyanna.

 

“I’ll drive you home. But you have to promise to do one thing for me,” Alyanna started, sternly putting her hands on her hips, “you have to have a serious chat with ____ on whether getting married is still the best option. I don’t mean to mother you, but I’d rather not have you crying in my living room again… I care about you…” they met eyes. “And ____. Please don’t hurt that sweet child.”

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

It was nine o’clock, but you were still sitting in your kitchen, staring at a bottle of wine. You didn’t drink, but it was supposed to numb feelings, and that’s exactly what you needed at the moment. It was tempting, but you’d seen what it did to people.

 

A seemingly innocent bottle, prettily glinting in the light. It could ruin lives.

 

It’d already ruined yours, and you didn’t even touch the stuff.

 

The sound of the door opening alerted you, causing a swell of hope in your chest, and making you pad down the hallway to see who it was. Relief flooded through your system, and without thinking, you scooped her into your arms, kicking the door closed.

 

“Natalie.” You breathed her in, noticing how nice she smelled. The lack of alcohol was strange, and for a second, you wondered if this was a dream.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

But it couldn’t be, because Natalie was _here_ , and she was so _real_. She adjusted her position so that her legs were wrapped around your waist, and without thinking, you lifted your face up to catch her lips in a kiss. She responded eagerly, and it was awhile before you both broke away, gasping for breath. She looked down at you, her eyes shining in the darkness.

 

You again buried your face in her neck, giving her kisses along her jawline, and tracing down to her collarbone. You stopped there. You hoped she wouldn’t notice your hesitance, but of course she did, and so, panic at losing this perfect moment attacked your stomach, spurring you to capture her lips again, but this time, you swiped her lower lip with your tongue, and ran your tongue along the inside of her mouth when she responded by opening up.

 

Not even a few moments later, Natalie put a hand on your chest, pushing you away. “You don’t have to,” she said, and for once, there was no bitterness in her eyes as she told you this, only pure, unadulterated caring.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

Your face flushed. She hadn’t looked at you like this since you were still friends, mutually pining after each other, not knowing how to express your feelings.

 

You nodded your head, and carried her to your bed. That night, you slept curled into each other like a real couple. It was almost surreal, you thought, looking down at her sleeping form. Gods, she was so beautiful.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> ALSO, AT THE TIME I'M WRITING THIS, THERE IS NINETY EIGHT KUDOS AND THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH I LOVE YOOOOOOUUUUUUU
> 
> ♡＾▽＾♡
> 
> To celebrate this, I shall eat an extra slice of birthday cake for all of you! It's not just me having an obsession with cake... it's for all of you... right.....(；´∀｀)


	9. chapter eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PARTY TIME

You were over the moon, the happiest you could ever recall being. Well, besides when Natalie said yes to your marriage proposal, but it was like those first days all over again… After that night, Natalie had told you that she wasn’t going out to drink anymore, and that she was going to find a job.

 

She hasn’t been able to find one yet, but you’ve been giving her money for errands. She didn’t want to take your money over doing household things like making breakfast (You’d insisted that her food was restaurant quality, and deserved payment, and she’d told you that you could do so with kisses), but you’d been able to come up with a compromise of tasks that you randomly generated just for her sake (She didn’t have to know that, though), although she insisted that she get a real job to help pick up slack so that you wouldn’t have a bad time paying for the wedding.

 

Before you knew it, october was rolling around, and so was the impending visit of your family. October was a big birthday month, and you were sure they’d come to visit since yours was the one that kicked it off.

 

Only two days after yours was Tiana’s, and then after her, not even two weeks later was Oliva’s, who would be turning a grand sixteen years old, and the weekend next had your mom’s birthday.

 

The next month was just as busy, with the birthday of your brother, and two more sisters. Usually they’d visit the night before your birthday, party until midnight, pack up and say goodbye if it was on a school night, or crash in your extra room and living room if it wasn’t. Natalie had always enjoyed having your family over, seeing as she just loved the kiddos.

 

Although, they weren’t quite so young anymore, with the youngest, the twins being preteens. You didn’t envy your mother.

 

Other than that, halloween was coming up soon, one of your favorite holidays (even though they pretty much all were), and were you planning on going all out.

 

Currently, you were planning a party, and wondering how many pumpkins was _too many_ pumpkins, and whether or not you _really_ wanted to clean them up.

 

“Babe?” You called out to Natalie, who was on the opposite side of the couch, snuggled in a blanket, and scrolling through something on her laptop. Probably still looking for a job. Her head perked up as she looked over at you. “Ya?” She asked.

 

“How early did you wanna hit the pumpkin patch this year?” Natalie snorted, hiding her face in her hands as she recalled your pumpkin adventure from last year. “No, not again, babe. You always leave them to rot and they stink up the place! Plus, we bought over a hundred pounds of pumpkins last year. Think of all of the children who we ruined halloween for.”

 

“It’s not like I meant to _squash_ their dreams.” Natalie sent you a playful glare, scolding you for your ‘poor humor’. “Sorry babe, I know you don’t like _pun_ kins all that much.” She groaned, grabbing a pillow from behind her to bury her face in.

 

“This is all Sans fault, isn’t it?” She asks, voice muffled by fabric.

 

“You hadn’t punned in months before you met him.” Her tone was playful, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you realized she was right.

 

You didn’t know if it was because you’d been working overtime to compensate for Natalie’s lack of job, or just because it’d been pushed to the back of your head while you got your stuff together, but not one cleverly constructed pun had been uttered from your mouth for months until you saw Sans there, his styrofoam cup overflowing with coffee.

 

Thinking about that moment, you unconsciously smile. He’s been a good friend for the short amount of time you’ve known him. After you’d snapped out of your thoughts, you saw that Natalie had removed her face from the pillow in favor to return to whatever she’d been doing on the laptop.

 

“There’s that _gourd_ gous face I love.”

 

Your teasing was cut short by your phone vibrating. Taking a glance at it, you saw that Papyrus had texted you.

 

**_The Greatest Of Mighty Spaghettors, Papyroo_ **   
**_4:32 p.m._ **

_HUMAN FRIEND ____! ARE YOU FREE FROM PRIOR ENGAGEMENTS TODAY?_

**_Candied Caramel_ **   
**_4:32 p.m._ **

_Yup! Did you have anything in mind?_

****

**_The Greatest Of Mighty Spaghettors, Papyroo_ **   
**_4:33 p.m._ **

_NYEH HEH HEH…_

 

Not even a moment later, loud knocking sounded from your door, causing you to walk over to answer it. There, standing in your door way with arms full of pillows and blankets, were Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, and Sans, who was only carrying one throw pillow.

 

“HEY! PUNK! We haven't hung out at ALL lately! SO, We decided we should have a hangout, AT YOUR HOUSE!” Undyne shouted, dragging her wife behind her, Papyrus following suit, and Sans lazily stepping in.

 

“Umm…” you intelligently stuttered, watching in silence as they barged in, redecorating your living room.

 

First, after dumping the blankets and pillows on the floor, Undyne and Papyrus got to moving the couch, which Natalie was still on. She took the surprise like a champ, though, keeping the shrieking to a minimum when the monsters all but tossed the couch to the other side of the room.

 

Alphys had begun to intervene slightly, making sure that they weren’t damaging any of your stuff. Sans was standing next to you, watching them with a much more laid back exterior. “How do you guys know where I live?”

 

The blue-hoodie clad skeleton shrugged. It didn’t bother you that your friends knew where you live as much as how they’d found out. Well, it wasn’t worth dwelling on, they’d probably just checked some records at work or something.

 

Grabbing Sans gently by the arm to tug him into the living room with you, you noticed that by now a huge pillow/blanket fort had been constructed in your living room, nearly taking up the entire space. Even the TV was under a heavy layer of blankets, although, it would defeat the purpose of a fort built for comfort, you supposed, if you had to leave it to watch TV.

 

“Whoa… I have to admit… this is really impressive, you guys.” You said, looking on with wide eyes. “OF COURSE,” Papyrus started, placing a hand on his chest, and taking on a dramatic pose, “THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS A MASTER OF SLEEPOVER RENOVATING!” you nodded your head in agreement, shifting your weight so that you leaning on Sans, taking comfort in how warm he seemed to be despite being made of bones.

 

“Most amazing work you have here, but, um, you wouldn’t happen to have seen my extremely adorable and smart fiance around here, have you?” A flustered sound came from inside the fort, giving away Natalie’s location immediately.

 

“Well… if you don’t mind, I have a princess to kidnap from her tower,” You winked, but before you could pull back the blanket flap that served as a door, you were stopped by Papyrus’ large frame.

 

He had a particular sparkle in his eye socket when he spoke, his shrill voice gleeful. “NYEH HEH HEH… YOU WILL HAVE TO GET PAST ME, FIRST, VILLAIN IF YOU WANT TO CAPTURE THE LOVELY MAIDEN NATALIE!” You looked around, assessing the situation. Undyne and Alphys would be no help, as they were nowhere in sight (likely the source of giggling in the tent, probably laughing at Papyrus’ antics)

 

“Sans, help me out with your cool brother, huh? He’s too much for a weak human like me!” you exclaimed, reaching out to where Sans was standing a few feet back, seeming to have almost fallen asleep on his feet.

 

Said skeleton gave you a grin, and raised his shoulders. “sorry, bud. paps’ skill is beyond me.” You sighed in an exasperated manner, squaring your shoulders as you faced Papyrus off again.

 

“Well… I may be a weak human without any allies on my side- and wait, what’s my point? Oh, um, BUT! I have the power of distraction on my side!” You puffed your chest out, and gave Papyrus a confident stare.

 

“OH, DEAR HUMAN, IT IS ENDEARING THAT YOU BELIEVE ONE OF THE OLDEST JAPES IN THE BOOK WOULD WORK ON _ME_ , JAPE EXTRAORDINAIRE!” You laughed darkly, preparing your trick.

 

You lept into action suddenly, pointing in the vague direction of your kitchen. “HEY, LOOK AT THAT!” You shouted, darting into the tent when Papyrus’ skull whipped in the direction you were pointing, so hard that his skull spun around, making him disoriented.

 

“NYOO HOO HOO!” You heard Papyrus from the outside of the tent, after he’d gotten his skull straight. “I CAN’T BELIEVE I FELL FOR THE OLDEST JAPE IN THE BOOK!”

 

You also heard Sans’ muffled laughter as he comforted Papyrus, smirking slightly to yourself at the hilarity of the situation. The smirk faded, however, when you looked around. The space that had once been your living room was drastically different, it was a little off-putting how different the space looked with blanket ceilings and pillow decorations.

 

In the far corner was your couch, where Alphys and Natalie were giggling.

 

Right in front of you, however, was Undyne, drawn up to her full height (the ceilings in here were high), and looking intimidating. “Hey, punk, say whatever you will about Papyrus, he’s weird, he’s naive, he’s self-absorbed…” A distinct, and offended ‘NYEH’ sound was heard from outside of the tent, but Undyne carried on, her composure only cracking slightly,

 

“But you have defeated Papyrus, who I have trained everyday… Even though I KNOW he’s too goofy for his own good…” Another sound of disapproval. “Prepare however you want, but when you step forward, the fight begins!”

 

You nodded your head with dramatic stoicness, and grabbed a pillow from beside your foot to use as a shield. “No matter what, I’m gonna get that princess!” You replied. It was to be expected that Undyne would be hard to beat.

 

She almost broke your hand with a fist bump once.

 

Her neck was thicker than your thigh.

 

But _damn_ , if this was her going easily, then you did not want to get on her bad side.

 

Luckily she wasn’t wielding any of her wicked spears that Alphys had told you about, but her punches _hurt_. The pillow was barely absorbing any shock, and you were sure you were going to have more than a few aches and sores in the morning. In a last ditch attempt at not having the wind knocked out of your for the tenth time, you called out to Alphys.

 

“Have mercy on this poor soul!” You cried, smiling in triumph when Alphys scurried over to Undyne, standing on her toes to reach her wife’s cheek, giving her a peck with red cheeks, which matched Undyne’s exactly.

 

For the brief moment Undyne had her guard down, you rushed to Natalie. Scooping her into your arms, you gave your fiance a huge smile, and exited the tent victoriously.

 

Your smile widened, almost making you wonder if being this happy was even possible, when Natalie kissed your cheek. Papyrus gasped dramatically, holding his gloved hands to his cheekbones with wide eye sockets.

 

“THE PRINCESS KISSED THE VILLAIN… MAGICALLY TRANSFORMING THEM INTO THE HEIR OF A LOST KINGDOM!” He narrated, wiping a tear that may have actually been real away from his eye socket.

 

Undyne patted you harshly on the back, holding Alphys under one arm, who was stuttering incoherently with the most massive blush you’ve ever seen on her face. “Get some!” She exclaimed, causing a small blush of your own to form. In retaliation, Natalie pulled you down by your collar, and gave you another long kiss on the lips.

 

At this point, you were a blushing mess, having to put Natalie down to run to Sans, the only other person in the room who wasn’t laughing. “Sans! Save me from the dirty shippers!” You exclaimed, holding onto him.

 

Sans returned the embrace after a brief moment of shock, and began to pat your back slightly. “comin’ to me for help? kid, you’ve reached an all new pil _low_.”

 

The pun-haters groaned, while you snickered. “I would pun back, but my mind is _blank_ et.” More groans. You felt Sans’ laughter as it resonated through his rib cage, which was less uncomfortable than you thought it would be. He was warm, and his voice was even deeper when you were listening to it through his rib cage. You could almost fall asleep like this…

 

“you okay, bud?” Snapping up, your gaze met with Sans’, his cheekbones a light blue. Huh. You wondered what that was about. “Oh, uh, ya. I almost just fell asleep. Who knew skeletons were so comfy?”

 

You were disappointed at the lack of warmth when you pulled away, but were whisked into a bone-crushing hug when Papyrus picked you up, and swung you around. “OF COURSE, FRIEND! SKELETONS ARE THE BEST CUDDLERS!”

 

You were both giggling like children when he let you go, your dizziness causing you to stumble into Natalie’s arms. You gazed down at her, blushing, still, half from your feelings, half from the blood having rushed to your head from the epic hug. “I love you.” you told her, nuzzling into her hair.

 

Softly, almost too quiet for you to hear, she responded slowly, as if unsure. “I love you too.”

 

“NO MORE OF THAT MUSHY STUFF! IT’S TIME FOR THE PARTY TO START!” Undyne yelled, somehow getting Papyrus into a position to where she was noogying him. “NYOO HOO HOO, PLEASE DO NOT NOOGIE THE SKELETON!” You laughed, hugging Natalie to you.

 

“What exactly does this party starting entail?” you asked lightly, still buzzed on happy from the earlier events. Undyne grinned at you with her shark-like teeth on full display.

 

“ALCOHOl, PUNK!”

 

Your insides went cold, and you felt Natalie go rigid beside you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh... this one's a bit longer, and had less Sans than I wanted... but next chapter shall be fun.... or at least I'll try... AND HEY! SPEAKING OF NEXT CHAPTER! it's probably gonna be a while. SO. MUCH. HOMEWORK. I procrastinated so much writing this. Enjoy the fruits of me evading labor...┏┃*･д┃┛


	10. chapter nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me not wanting to put in plot so I went with a trope.

"Oh, I’m sorry Undyne… but… I can’t drink alcohol.” You were relieved to hear Natalie speak up. You thought maybe she’d take the buff fish up on that offer, breaking her nearly week long sobriety, but it seemed your worries were for naught.

 

“HUH? Why?!” Undyne questioned, putting her hands on her hips, and giving you a confused look. “I’m… uh… I’m in a program now. Trying to break that habit.” natalie replied, sounding as if there was a lump in her throat. You patted her back in reassurance, and gave gentle encouragement.

 

“Oh… I’m sorry, punk.” Undyne apologized, sounding uncharacteristically quiet, but soon, her attention turned to you, and the passion was back in full force. “BUT YOU! YOU HAVE TO DRINK TONIGHT!” You awkwardly rubbed at the back of your head, giving a bashful look. “I don’t know about that. I’ve never actually drank more than a glass of champagne before. And it was really watered down.”

 

“NGAH!” She pumped her fist into the air, looking at you with a half smirk, half face of excitement as she continued, “EVEN MORE REASON! We have to figure out what kind of drunk you are!” Gosh. You? Getting drunk?

 

Well… it had always been a dream of yours when you were younger to get blackout drunk on your twenty first birthday… but by the time it had rolled around, you’d seen too many people make a fool of themselves while drunk to give it a try.

 

Also, you had really weird ambitions as a kid. You remembered telling Natalie once, though, the reason behind that dream…

 

_“Why would you want to do something like that?!” Natalie exclaimed, looking over at you with wide eyes. You were both watching fireworks at the park, side by side on the blanket she’d brought, a considerable distance from everybody else._

_You thought Natalie looked pretty with her hair sprawled out across the ground, and her looking at you with flushed cheeks in the darkness, her features being exposed with the random explosions of the fireworks… it wasn’t long before you’d started to spill all of your secrets, like you always did. All the secrets except the one that kept you up the most at night; your unrequited interest in your best friend._

_“Because… people are always saying how alcohol numbs feelings… and I don’t like feeling these feelings… so, the answer would be to drink until I can’t remember what’s bothering me, right?” Natalie looked dumbfounded at your reply. “That’s a really unhealthy way of thinking… but just to make sure you don’t get in any trouble, I’ll go with you to make sure nothing bad happens! Besides, gotta make sure that the precious cinnamon roll child is okay!”_

_You blushed and grumbled into your hands at her nickname for you, but you both knew that you were smiling. “C’mon, Nats, I’m only two years younger than you.” Natalie giggled, and rolled closer to you so that your faces were only centimeters apart, causing what felt like gallons of blood to rush to your face. It was dark, but you knew that she was smirking as she booped your nose, and whispered something that you never forgot, not even twelve years later…_

_“I know… but I’d never forgive myself if I let something bad happen to you… which is why I’ll take care of you forever! Right by your side!” that day, too, you made a silent vow to yourself that you’d do everything in your power to keep Natalie with you, to protect her at all cost, and make sure that she was always happy._

 

And just look at how that had been going. Although, you supposed you’re doing better than you thought you might. You hadn’t even had one glass besides at your graduation party, and you were proud of it.

 

Either way, the memory brought a smile to your face, and, ignoring the playful disgusted looks Undyne gave you, you nuzzled into Natalie’s hair, and whisper asked if she remembered that day like you did.

 

This, of course, caused her to blush and stumble away into the kitchen, muttering something about getting the drinks. You sighed happily, your gaze meeting Sans’ as you looked around the room. Strangely enough, you felt as though his smile didn’t quite reach his proverbial eyes. This caused a slight frown to form on your face, but before you could ask him if anything was wrong, Natalie was already back, and passing out shot glasses that you didn’t know you owned, as well as filling everybody’s cup with what you knew was some of the strongest stuff you kept in the house.

 

Except her own, which she filled with some soda. “Since I got the alcohol, I’m calling the first game, truth or dare.” She grinned wickedly at you, causing a slight shiver to go down your spine. There was something about your innocent personality that kept people from asking or telling you to do crazy things, but the exception was Natalie. In fact, she usually reserved some of her best material for you.

 

If you weren’t going to drink before, it was a set deal now, as you told the others. Doing her dares was terrible enough while sober. You didn’t know what kind of things you’d confess or do while drunk.

 

You all grabbed your glasses, and traversed to the fort to sit down, placing a bottle in the middle of your circle. The lack of light besides the aesthetic christmas lights gave the fort a nice ambiance for the game you were about to play. Wait… where did those christmas lights come from, and where were they plugged in? This fort was in the direct middle of your living room. Oh, well. Maybe you just didn’t see the cord from around the fort…

 

“AS I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, IT WOULD ONLY BE NATURAL FOR ME TO GO FIRST!” Papyrus exclaimed, spinning the bottle with such enthusiasm that you were sure it was going to either break or fly away.

 

Thankfully, it did neither, but it did land on Alphys. “ALPHYS, TRUTH OR DARE?” Alphys, being the rather meek monster she was, it didn’t surprise you that she opted out of the dare option with her answer of truth. Papyrus made a sound of excitement before clearing his throat (?), “ALPHYS, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS” the skeleton made a show of rolling his ‘r’s dramatically, getting a laugh out of everyone in the fort, “ASK YOU TO SHARE WITH US, ONE EMBARRASSING FACT ABOUT YOURSELF!”

 

The small monster’s face turned red as she started stuttering uncontrollably, while you all waited for her answer. “... u-u-um, o-okay… w-when I’m, I’m o-out i-i-in p-public…. Irandomlyshippeopleandmakestoriesaboutheminmyheadandnamethemandeverything…” By the end, she was nearly impossible to undertand, but you all clapped at her admission anyways, before she spun the bottle. It landed on Sans.

 

“eh. ‘m too lazy to do a dare, so truth.” Alphys’ glasses glinted dangerously as she began to cackle quietly, doing a completely 180 from how she was acting only moments ago. To be honest, though, you were actually interested in what Alphys wanted to ask, and what Sans’ reply would be. “The truth that I want from you is…” With no stutters, Alphys’ aura got darker and darker as she continued, “Your crush.”

 

All of that build up for one little question, but you could admit that sharing your crush with others was an embarrassing situation. Besides, with most of the people in the room being taken, he was one of the only two others you could ask.

 

Sans seemed to be just as intimidated as you were by the question, his grin not even faltering for a moment. “don’t have one. like i’ve told ____ over here,” he gestured to his left, right where you were sitting, then pointed back at himself, “‘m _boneafide_ bachelor.” Both Alphys and Undyne looked disappointed, while Papyrus just shook his head disapproval.

 

“SANS! I’M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU. I CAN TELL YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY TRYING TO DEFLECT THE QUESTION WITH A PUN!… ALTHOUGH, I SUPPOSE EVEN IF YOU DID HAVE A CRUSH, YOU WOULD NEVER FIND THE MOTIVATION TO PURSUE THEM.”

 

This made everybody around the room break into soft giggles while Sans just shrugged. Undyne stood up, though, legs bent at a half crouch while she looked at Sans with anger written on her face. “THAT ANSWERS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! NGAH! TAKE A SHOT, NERD!”

 

Looking almost bored, Sans lifted his drink up to his teeth, while you watched intently. With a wink in your direction, Sans opened his mouth, whilst you tried to get a good look of the inside of his skull, and dumped the shot into his mouth, his teeth making an almost clicking noise when his teeth connected again.

 

Your face was scrunched up in confusion, and Sans was laughing at you by the end of it, but you couldn’t care less- all you wanted to know was _where it went_. “Babe, it’s best if you just don’t think about it,” Natalie told you, patting your arm. You nodded your head, gaze still fixated on Sans, trying to figure what the duck was going on.

 

Sans spun the bottle, next, and it looked like it was on track to stop at Alphys once again, but it suddenly stopped moving before it could reach her, so it landed on Natalie instead. “hey nats. truth or dare.”

 

Natalie was completely in her element. Truth or dare was _her game_. She always gave the blunt and honest answer to truth, no matter how embarrassing, and never turned down a dare. “Dare.” She replied simply. You could see it on Sans’ skeleface, he was planning something. The scary part was that you knew that whatever the dare was, Natalie would do it.

 

“not one for truth, huh? don't you know it’s not good to keep things _bottled_ up? anyways, if you’ll give it a _shot_ , i dare you to… switch shirts with ____.” Sans gave you another wink, to which you gaped at. “Traitor… you’re just another dirty shipper…” Natalie tugged at your shirt with a determined look on her face.

 

“Come on, boo, now’s not the time for accusations, now’s the time for me to win truth or dare.” You took your shirt off with a red face, handing it to Natalie as she passed you her own for you to put on. Despite the fact that you were a couple inches taller than Natalie, you were the same clothing size mostly, so you were able to fit into each other's shirts pretty nicely. “You can’t even _win_ truth or dare…” You whined, giving Natalie and Sans pouty looks.

 

 

“DON’T POUT, ____, THAT SHIRT LOOKS VERY NICE ON YOU.” Papyrus encouraged, giving you a brilliant smile, lifting your mood for all of two seconds before Undyne butted in.

 

 

“YA! And don’t pretend you don’t like the sight of your girlfriend wearing your clothes!” that’s it. You were officially dead from the amount of blood that had rushed to your head over the course of these couple of hours you’d spent with your friends.

 

“It’s my turn!” Natalie declared, reaching over to spin the bottle. She gave you a smirk before spinning the bottle. You prayed that bottle didn’t land on you.

 

But it did. Of course it did. Natalie had truth or dare magic, somehow always landing on whoever she wanted. You almost wanted to accuse her of having telekinetic powers that she used to humiliate others during the game. She gave you an almost predatory look as she asked you, “Truth or dare?”

 

You looked her dead in the eyes, pondering your choices. You knew that if you replied with truth, she’d make you regret all of your life decisions. She had practically all the dirt on you. You decided that whatever she made you do in a dare was easier to explain than trying to reason with the others that sleeping with a stuffed animal was completely normal for you.

 

What adult doesn’t sleep with a stuffed animal. It was all of the other ones who were weird. Not you. And it certainly not weird that you tucked your stuffed animal in, or sometimes carried it around cocooned in blankets like it was a baby.

 

Not weird at all.

 

“Dare.” you responded reluctantly, watching as her grin only grew wider. “I dare you to put on that onsie I got for you a couple years ago…” your face showed horror as you looked back to Sans and Papyrus briefly before looking back at Natalie, “And play us a song on your ukulele while dancing around.” You looked at the shot glass in front of you, wondering if you could just drink the soda it and call it a day, even if it meant being a quitter.

 

Then you looked up at Undyne who was giving you a shark grin, Alphys who was giving you a thumbs up, Papyrus who seemed to be silently cheering you on, and Sans who was… snoring. That lazybones could fall asleep anywhere-

 

**You were filled with DETERMINATION.**

 

With hardened resolve, you stood up and left the fort, heading in the direction of your room. After digging through the closet, you found the onesie. It was actually your favorite pajamas before you met the skeleton brothers. After meeting them… well, let’s just say you felt a little weird putting on an outfit with a cartoonish skeleton print after meeting them.

 

Actually, you were reluctant to even look at it after first meeting Dr. Gaster.

 

As you slipped it on over your clothes, you felt your sins crawling on your back. On your way out, you grabbed your ukulele case, and traversed the house back to your living room. Slipping into the fort, you immediately looked over at Sans and Papyrus for their reaction. Both of them had almost identical looks of confusion on their skelefaces, and it would have been funny had you not been completely humiliated. Damn Natalie and her truth or dare prowess.

 

“I’m so sorry, is this offensive to you?” You asked, hand already flying up to unzip the outfit. Sans continued to look on in bafflement while Papyrus eased your worries. “NO PROBLEMS, HUMAN ____! IT IS LIKE… HM… YOU KNOW THAT SHIRT UNDYNE HAS WITH THE SEMI CIRCLES ON IT AND A DOT ABOVE THEM?” you nodded your head.

 

“WELL, THEN YOU ALSO KNOW ABOUT IT’S RESEMBLANCE TO… ERM…. FEMALE PARTS?” You nodded your head again, trying not to laugh. Poor Paps having to explain this to you. “IT IS EXACTLY LIKE THAT! THE PRINT IS TOO CRUDE AND CARTOONISH TO BE ACTUALLY OFFENSIVE TO ANYONE OTHER THAN STRICT PARENTS!”

 

It was at this point where Sans finally snapped out of his stupor, looking over to give you his trademark grin. “ya, kiddo. you’re fine. what is creepy, though, is those halloween decorations they put up in the stores” You breathed a sigh of relief while Natalie, Undyne, and Alphys were laughing their sides into stitches over your embarrassment. “Hey, all of you shoosh, I have the second part of a dare to complete!” you announced, taking your ukulele out of it’s case with care, and taking a moment to make sure that it was turned.

 

Then you began to strum the strings, taking a few tries to get the melody you wanted.

 

Standing in the middle of your circle of friends, you shook your hips a little as you twirled around and sung the song. “If you’re ever stuck in the middle of the sea….” While singing, you made sure to give exaggerated winks to your friends, and random faces that made them laugh.

 

You were gasping for breath at the end of the song, from singing and dancing at the same time, and your fingers hurt a bit because you’d lost your callouses over time. “It’s finally… my… turn…” you wheezed out, setting your ukulele in it’s case, and spinning the bottle. It landed on Undyne. She’d been taking shots the entire time, and a blush was starting to form on her face scales. Boy was this going to be fun.

 

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Staring at what remained of the stone park bench, you felt bad for the inanimate object. It look as though it had been trampled on by elephants and set on fire then trampled by the same elephants again. “I should have never questioned your ability to suplex things.” you commented, staring at the sorry piece of public property.

 

“YA GOT THAT RIGHT, PUNK!” A quick scope of your surroundings revealed an officer in uniform walking your way. “Oh shiitake mushrooms!” You hissed, pointing discreetly at the policeman. “Undyne, I need you to use those glorious muscles to get us out of here before we’re fined for destruction of public property!”

 

Undyne caught a glimpse of the officer, and her scales got paler. She quickly scooped alphys up, and ran in the direction of your house. Papyrus followed her example by putting both Alphys and Sans under his arms, and crouching down to allow you to climb onto his back.

 

“NORMALLY I DO NOT CONDONE RUNNING AWAY FROM THE AUTHORITIES… BUT I AGREE THAT IN THIS SITUATION IT IS THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION…”

 

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“NGAH! WE NEED TO SPICE THIS PARTY UP MORE!” Undyne shouted during dinner. “I don’t know about that, Undyne…” you commented, looking down at your plate of spaghetti. Undyne and Papyrus had helped make it…. And, let’s just say that it’s a miracle your house didn’t burn down.

 

You considered yourself a good cook. You knew how to season and how long to cook things. Undyne and Papyrus, on the other hand, well… to compensate for the lack of passion while cooking the pasta, Undyne had insisted that adding hot sauce would make up for it. Everybody else was fine, but the problem was that you were sensitive to spicy foods. Your ears felt like they were about to melt off.

 

“I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS WIMPY SAUCE, NERDS, I’M TALKING ABOUT A COMPETITION… A DRINKING COMPETITION!”

 

Natalie held her hands up in a gesture of surrender, “I’m out. Can’t drink.” She said. Alphys nodded in agreement. “I-I, um, h-have work t-t-tomorrow…” she confessed, with Sans adding in a ‘same’ after.

 

“MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES, UNDYNE, BUT I CANNOT PARTICIPATE IN THIS COMPETITION. OVER DRINKING WILL INTERRUPT MY MORNING SCHEDULE AS I WOULD REQUIRE MORE SLEEP TO RECOVER! I SHALL GLADLY BE THE REFEREE BETWEEN YOU AND THE HUMAN ____, THOUGH!”

 

The fish’s sharp gaze locked onto you. You sent a joking glare at the tall skeleton for putting you on the spot like that. “I’m sorry, Undyne… I just can’t…”

 

“URGH! YOU’RE ALL SO BORING!” She shouted, shoving another bite of pasta in her mouth. “Um.. well, it might not be as fun as everybody getting super drunk, but we can all watch a bunch of bad movies?” You suggested meekly.

 

“THAT SOUNDS LIKE A WONDERFUL IDEA! ALTHOUGH, I WOULD RATHER WE NOT WATCH HORROR…” Papyrus commented. “Don’t worry, ____ is a scaredy cat, we don’t usually watch scary movies. But they do have a particular love for rom coms…” Natalie told the others. You covered your face with your hands. “Natalie!” You whined, “why would you tell them that!”

 

“They were bound to find out anyways, what with your enormous collection of romance novels.”

 

“you have a collection of romance novels?” Sans snickered, causing you to hide further in your sweater. “OH BROTHER, DON’T PRETEND YOU AREN’T THE SAME WAY WITH YOUR SCI-FI.” This earned a snort from you.

 

“Sci-fi…?” You giggled.

 

“ENOUGH WITH THE CHIT CHAT! GO PUT ON A MOVIE OR SOMETHING!” Undyne huffed, obviously still upset about nobody wanting to have a drinking contest with her. “Can you do it, Nats?” You asked, starting to gather up plates. “I’ll clean the dishes.” She nodded, guiding everyone back to the living room.

 

“HUMAN ____, DO YOU WANT ANY HELP?” Papyrus, being the huge sweetheart he is, asked. “No, just go enjoy the movie. You’re my guests after all.” you replied. The tall skeleton stood where he was for a moment, contemplating something. “Go on. You wouldn’t want me doing dishes if I was your guest, would you?”

 

“I SUPPOSE NOT…” Once he was gone, you let out a sigh of relief. He was just the sweetest thing, but after tonight, there was no way you trusted him in the kitchen. Turning back to the task at hand, you let out a surprised squeak when you ran into Sans.

 

“You scared me, you lazybones.” You scolded, holding a hand over your heart. The skeleton shot you a wink, which for some reason, gave you a weird feeling in your chest, and replied in a nonchalant manner. “this is a lot of cleaning up to do for one person.”

 

“You say that as if you’re going to help me. And I’m used to it anyways. You would not believe how messy six girls can get while eating macaroni and cheese…”

 

“i may not help you with cleaning, but i’m here for emotional support.” Sans offered. You laughed at his blatant admission, and at the puns about dishes he made periodically, although he did pitch in with helping you put dishes away with his cool magical powers.

 

Today was a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long! Not trying to make up excuses, but I had to turn in five projects in one week. Almost makes you wonder whether or not the teachers do plan with each other when to give out work....
> 
>  
> 
> Anyways, this chapter was longer than usual, and I'm TRYING, key word TRYING, to get two more chapters out this month. I really want to do the Halloween one on time! Also the song is called 'Count on Me' by Bruno Mars.
> 
> |｀･ω･)9


	11. chapter ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MEH more shenanigans.
> 
> this was supposed to be a one chapter thing... but... the shenanigans took to long so the actual plot of this chapter is reserved for next chapter...
> 
>  
> 
> More motivation to get this part done in time for Halloween?

 

 

The text was the only warning you got. You almost ignored your phone’s urgent alarm, but some part of you that you’re eternally grateful for decided to look at the notification, if only to curse the reason you were woken up from such a good night’s rest.

 

Thank the stars that you had, though, because it was a text.

 

From your mom.

 

Saying that she should be over in a couple hours. They decided to surprise visit you, this year, instead of telling you that they were coming over until they’d already landed. You frantically checked the calendar after receiving the text, noticing that it was two days before your birthday.

 

They’d probably decided to visit early in favor of keeping the kiddos in school. What was not in your favor, though, was the fact that everybody you knew was sprawled out in the humungous pillow/blanket fort that took up half of your living room. Everywhere you looked there was a new cleaning horror; popcorn stuck in between couch cushions, soda in the rug, and fuck you were glad that those christmas lights hadn’t set the entire thing on fire during the night seeing as nobody had bothered to turn them off.

 

Your first course of action was to yell. “GET UP!” You screeched, running around the room and shaking everyone awake. Undyne and Papyrus were among the first to actually respond to your manic shaking, and were soon rubbing their eye(sockets)s.

 

“HUMAN? WHAT IS IT?” Papyrus asked, giving you a concerned look. You pulled out your phone to show him the text from your mother. “My family's going to be here in two hours.” You told him. His eye sockets widened in the same terrible realization that you, yourself had only come to seconds ago.

 

“THIS PLACE IS A MESS! THIS IS NO CONDITION TO GREET YOUR FAMILY WITH!” Undyne came to soon after this comment, grumbling at you for waking her up. “UNDYNE! THIS IS NO TIME TO COMPLAIN! NOT ONLY HAVE SLEPT IN FOR A SHAMEFUL AMOUNT OF TIME, BUT THE HUMAN’S FAMILY IS VISITING, AND THEIR HOUSE IS A MESS!”

 

The fish simply flipped you both off, and curled back into her lizard girlfriend. “It looks like it’s just me and you, Paps.” You told him solemnly. “IT SEEMS SO, HUMAN…” You both looked at each other at the same time, a devious smile on your features.

 

“It seems to me that if the others won’t help… they shouldn’t get in the way…”

 

“OH, HUMAN, I WAS THINKING THE EXACT SAME THING…”

 

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“WHAT A MAGNIFICENT POOL YOU HAVE HERE, HUMAN ____…” You nodded your head, proudly looking at the beautiful blue body of water in front of you. Even though it was fall, and you were rather busy during the summer, Natalie, as well, didn’t take much time to swim, you still had it cleaned regularly, so it was pristine.

 

“Think our friends would enjoy a nice swim?” You looked back on your porch where both a sleeping Sans and Alphys were placed delicately on a pool floaty, while both Undyne and Natalie were snoozing on some chairs.

 

With a gentleness one could only summon while trying not to wake friends one was pranking, you and Papyrus placed the floaty in the pool. The only reason you were taking mercy on Alphys and Sans was because Alphys was a precious cinnamon roll, and you were pretty sure that even if Sans was dunked into the pool, he wouldn’t wake up upon contact with the water.

 

You and the tall skeleton looked over at your handiwork with pride. “I’ll get Natalie, think you can handle the Buff Fish by yourself?” he nodded his skull yes, so you both headed over, and lifted your respective loved ones. “They’re going to kill us.” You commented.

 

“ONLY IF THEY CATCH US, THAT IS.”

 

“Good point.” on the count of three, you both tossed the people you were holding into the pool, only lingering a moment to watch as they registered their rude awakening. The splash ended up waking Alphys, who flailed around when she noticed where she was, effectively falling of her floaty, taking Sans down with her, and- would you look at that. Sans was slowly sinking into the water, still asleep. Your assumption had been right, then.

 

Except, that tidal wave wasn’t from Alphys’ graceful fall into the pool, and knew for a fact that Natalie wasn’t that fast of a swimmer. “ABORT MISSION!” You cried, dragging Papyrus back inside with you. “We have two hours to get this hole cleaned up!” Locking the doors, you wrote a quick note and stuck it to the glass door that went to your backyard.

 

_You break it, you buy it~_

 

Undyne liked destroying things, but her wallet was not one of them, and you’d learned a few things about collecting money from chatting with Muffet about wedding plans… speaking of wedding plans, you were going to have to check up with Natalie on that, since she’d decided to completely take control of the planning, saying she had nothing better to do at the moment.

 

A loud bang came from the back door, where you were able to see a soaking wet Undyne flipping you the bird with clenched teeth. You were so in for it later… maybe you could hide behind Alphys? Speaking of the monster, she was sitting beside Undyne, trying to calm her down. Aw. What a sweet thing she was, still trying to protect you after you dunked her in the pool. Natalie was sitting in one of the patio chairs, shooting you a nasty look, and Sans was nowhere to be seen, likely still at the bottom of the pool.

 

Damn, you knew he was a heavy sleeper, but this was just getting ridiculous. It’s a good thing he’s a skeleton…

 

“gotcha.” You were swept up into a cold, soggy hug from behind, leaving you baffled, while Undyne laughed at you through the glass. “Saaaaaaannnnnnssss!” You whined, turning around in the embrace to face said skeleton. “y’know, that wasn’t a very _pool_ thing to do, _water_ you going to do once undyne gets her hands on you? i don’t think she’s going to _wave_ this one off.”

“Let _minnow_ when you’re _fin_ ished, because we need to get cleaning _bass_ t, my mom’s coming over, and she’s a real _urchin_ when my house isn’t clean.” Sans chuckled, releasing you, but the damage was done, your shirt had the imprints of a hug, and you would have found it endearing if your family wasn’t visiting so soon.

 

“Thanks, it would be great if you could lead Alphys and Undyne to the downstairs bathroom, I have some extra robes they can use while I dry their clothes. I should have some clothes that would fit you if you wanted. Robes are all I got for the others, though, you may be a bit… wide… but at least you’re around the same height as me. Besides, as Natalie keeps telling me, my lounge clothes look like circus tents. It's a wonder I'm even able to keep them from sliding off”

 

“wide?” Sans raised a brow bone in mock offense, “i’ll have you know that i’m just _big-boned_.” You snorted, covering your mouth to try and hide your amusement. You could go on for hours, but by that time, Undyne, Natalie, and Alphys would still be outside, you would be punning with a skeleton in your kitchen, and poor Papyrus would probably still be trying to organize everything on his own while your family looked on in confusion.

 

“Okay, okay, you win this time, but seriously, I have to tell you guys a few things about some… details of my life I’ve kept from them to keep you from spilling the metaphorical beans.” Sans disappeared again after giving you a nodd of affirmation, leaving behind the scent of… ozone? Oh no. That just wouldn’t do. Grabbing the air freshener, you called to paps that you’d be starting with the remnants of the kitchen mess.

 

Although you’d attempted at cleaning last night, Sans had distracted you with his humerus jokes, and you were too tired to actually do anything other than clean off some dishes. Before you could get started however, you were being noogied by a muscular fish woman, and there was no escape.

 

“THAT WAS A DANGEROUS TRICK YOU PULLED BACK THERE, PUNK!”

 

“ _Chew_ me out later, ‘Dyne! I need to do work, and you need your clothes dried!” you chastised, getting Undyne to reluctantly back off with a single-eyed glare, and a murmured promise that this wasn’t over. It wasn’t long before you were into a full on cleaning frenzy, working almost as fast as Papyrus in the living room.

 

The tall blessing had almost finished with it, leaving the room better than before. Meanwhile, you’d finished the kitchen, moving on to grab the air mattresses from the linen closet to fill them with air. Your house was large for two people, but it wasn’t large enough for nine, with only one guest room that had a queen sized bed, you needed several air mattresses. One for Olivia, another for Cammi and Keira, and one more for the twins. You’d have Natalie sleep in your room for extra space, but…

 

“FINALLY DONE!” You cheered, collapsing on the floor. Out of the corner of your eye, socked feet padded towards you. “Good job, ____, but now you have to take a shower, and make yourself look… presentable.” Oh, yes, the least favorite part of your family visiting. Yes, you loved them. No, you wouldn’t trade them for a million dollars. But, ASGORE, were they a pain to keep up with.

 

“Can you get the others their clothes back? I think the dryer should be done by now, and if not, just try to find them something that will fit. I don’t want my mom to walk in to some half naked scaled ladies. _That_ wouldn’t freak her out at all.” Natalie giggled, padding off presumably to grab your friends’ clothes, leaving you on the ground.

 

Taking a painstakingly long time to get up, you grabbed some clothes from the back of your closet, and trudged to your bathroom. The shower was one of record time, and soon, you were staring in your mirror, blowdrying your hair as you took in how feminine you looked. You didn’t mind looking feminine. You didn’t mind looking masculine. But you prefered looking neutral to keep people from assuming, although they often did anyways.

 

Your small stature lead some to believe you a girl, while your low voice had others thinking you were a guy, but on many occasions, you’d had people confused as to what was in your pants. Which is exactly the way you preferred it. Except, having changed your diapers when you were a baby, your mom was not fooled by your ‘lazy, tom-boyish’ get up.

 

You looked at yourself for a while longer before finally heading out into the living room to explain to your friends the situation.

 

Standing before them, you could tell that they had a lot of questions. “I’ll take a few questions before I go over everything.” You said, and instantly, hands shot up all across the room. You picked Papyrus first since the sweetheart helped you this morning, and he was likely to word his question in the least brash way possible.

 

“HUMAN… NOT THAT IT ISN’T A GREAT LOOK FOR YOU… BUT IS THERE A REASON YOU HAVE DONE YOURSELF UP LIKE THE HUMAN NATALIE? I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION IT WAS NOT YOUR STYLE!” You sighed. It _was_ the most obvious question and the suffocating elephant in the room.

 

“So here’s the thing… my mom has nothing against trans or non-binary people, but… geez, this is weird… she doesn’t think they actually exist? She thinks that they’re misguided or were abused, and I’ve tried telling her that it doesn’t work that way, but she’s not a bad person, she just doesn’t understand, but I’m afraid that she’ll think something is wrong with me if I tell her, so I, uh….. sort of just pretend that I’m a girl when she visits?”

 

You picked Undyne next, seeing as the previous hands had went down, and she was the only one left with another question. “And what about Natalie, is she fine with you dating?” You let out another sigh. You were going to sound like such a bad person after this. “We haven’t told her. It’s only a little different with gays, lesbians, or bi folk. She believes they exist, but she doesn’t know how to properly deal with them. Doesn’t discriminate or hate on them, she just gets really awkward when the topic is brought up. If I told her I’m pretty sure she’d be like ‘kay, honey, I still love you, you know that right?’, and then we’d never talk again.”

 

“but, you’re getting married. in, like, what, a couple of months?” Sans intergected. You deflated even further, wrapping your arms around yourself. “I want to invite her, I want to tell her. But I’m really afraid of her rejection. I know that I should instead of letting her inevitably find out, but it’s just… complicated.”

 

At this point, Natalie stepped in, giving you a side hug while addressing the others. “My parents know, though, and they’re really supportive! In fact, they insisted on helping pay for the wedding as soon as I showed them the ring! With their help, I know that breaking the news to ____’s family will be a piece of cake, and her sister Tiana already knows!”'

 

“And look how that went, we haven’t talked since _her_ last birthday, and that was only because I got her a gift.”

 

“H-hey! D-don’t worry! W-we’ll a-a-all help you k-keep y-your secret! It’slikeinananimethationcesawwherethereweretwostarcrossedloverswhocouldn’ttellanybodyabouttheirrelationshipbecausetheywereinseperatepacksandswornenemies!”

 

You straightened up, and brushed your slight mood aside to smile at your friends’ encouragement. “Thanks you guys! First the cleaning, then the not killing me after I dunked you all in the pool, and even consoling me? You guys are the best!”

 

“aw, thanks, kiddo.”

 

“I-it’s no p-p-problem, r-really…”

 

“You better believe it, punk!”

 

“AS IF THE GREAT PAPYRUS COULD BE ANYTHING LESS THAN THE BEST!”

 

In your heart, you felt your affection grow for these monsters that had claimed their spots in your life, nearly causing tears to prick at your eyes. Goodness. They kept breaking your record for happy. When was the last time when you’d felt like this without falling into a depressive slump right after?

 

A sudden, dreadful knock on the door reminded you.

 

You loved your family.

 

You wouldn’t trade them for anything.

 

Sparing a quick glance back over at your friend's showed that they had the same apprehension brewing inside of them as you. Time to show them that there really wasn’t anything to fear about your family. Sure, your sisters could be brats, your step-dad could be quite the jerk, and your mom was clueless about the LGBT community, but those were minor flaws when you compared them to the bigger picture.

 

Traversing the room, you opened the door with a huge smile, getting tackled by two overexcited preteens. “Honey!” Your mom exclaimed, squeezing your shoulder affectionately while looking beyond you into your house.

 

“Darling. Honey bun. Pumpkin. You know that I respect you as a young lady and all of your decisions, but would you care to introduce me to your new friends? After all, I’ve heard nothing about them.”

 

You bashfully ducked your head, trying to come up with a cover story of your meeting to replace the one where Natalie got drunk and started bar hopping, because not only would that reveal the fact that Natalie was a recovering alcoholic, it would also unearth the fact that you were engaged, and you really didn't’ want to explain that you were keeping that from her as well.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Love y'all!
> 
>  
> 
> (I have nothing else to say, and feel kind of awkward)


	12. chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heya, so this is just some introductions and time with reader's mom
> 
> ((also if you didn't read the notes, at the bottom, the last two paragraphs are some questions about the fic, please answer!))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya... so, I've explained everything in the bottom notes, and if you don't want to ready through everything, the bottom two paragraphs are about a little questions pretty relevant to the future of the fic, so please answer them!

 

 

Explaining how many secrets you’d had, of which weren’t all you were currently keeping, was rather difficult to do in front of not only your friends, but your younger siblings as well. “U-um, well, these are my co-workers, Alphys and Sans. Um, the taller skeleton is Sans’ brother, and the fish lady is Alphys’....”

 

“WIFE!” papyrus answered for you. Oh well. Guess that cat’s out of the bag. Although, it would have been rather selfish to ask Alphys and Undyne to hide their relationship just so you could keep up the illusion of being the perfectly normal daughter. “Oh… my….”

 

Your mother seemed to short circuit, looking around the room, looking like she just couldn’t understand what the heck was going on. You were fairly certain your mother had nothing against monsters, but finding out about their sexuality definitely wasn’t helping the situation. While your mother was breaking down, with your stepfather brooding in the corner, you made a few motions for Natalie to take the kiddos out.

 

“Okay, kids! Who wants to go check out a cool bakery your sister found?” Natalie suddenly exclaimed, grabbing all of the children and bolting out of the front door. As soon as the door shut behind Natalie, your mother seemed to snap out of her stupor.

 

“That’s…. Lovely….. “ She finally said. You cleared your throat, “yes, so now that we’re all introduced, how’s your time back home been?” You asked, genuinely curious. You loved Ebott city, but you missed your hometown with a passion.

 

After moving here briefly while you attended high school, where you met Natalie and your other friends, your parents decided to move back to their more country-esque roots, while you stayed behind to attend college. After your sister graduated high school, she also moved in your general area to attend cooking school so that she could live her dream of being a baker.

 

“It’s been busy. Now that all of the girls are old enough to take interest in boys,” your smile tightened if just a bit, “we’ve been trying to fend off suitors left and right. Although, with Olivia nearly out of the house, and with Avery right after her, things should get a lot easier soon.” Your mother told you, giving you an over exaggerated sigh while propping her feet up on the ottoman.

 

“Hey, so I appreciate the effort you guys took to surprise me, and believe me, it was one heck of a surprise, but, um, why?” At this point, your stepfather took over the conversation, allowing your mom some more time to think and process. Your stepfather hadn’t really given too many clues on his thoughts on the LGBT community, although it was to be expected since the topic wasn’t really brought up in your house.

 

“We took a vacation earlier this year… and the girl’s can’t really have anymore unexplained absences on their record.” You rolled your eyes. They were so stubborn about this. “It doesn't have to be an unexcused absence if you give them a reason for the absence. If you want to just tell them that you went on a vacation, then fine. Excused absences aren’t restricted to doctor visits and such.”

 

“Darling, don’t you think that things might have changed a bit since you went to school back home?” Your mother cut in, seeming to have finally gathered herself. At that moment, your stepfather’s phone rang. “Sorry about that, still gotta work.” He said, excusing himself upstairs where you could only just barely hear his muffled phone conversation.

 

“Yes, we’re both technically working right now. You see, we both have the option to work from home… don’t mind me if I have to take a few phone calls today.” Your mother explained, but she looked to your friends with a wide businesswoman smile and continued, “how rude of me, I’ve been practically ignoring you this entire time! I’d like to introduce myself, my name is Leah Frost. How about you tell me about yourselves?”

 

Papyrus started first, “IT’S VERY NICE TO MEET YOU, MS ___’S MOM! MY NAME IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND I WORK AT A FLOWER SHOP!” You didn’t know that Papyrus worked at a flower shop, but when you thought about it, it made complete sense. “AND I’M STUDYING TO BECOME A CHEF!”

 

Your mother nodded her head politely, “That sounds like a wonderful job, Papyrus, and it’s a pleasure to meet one of my daughter’s friends.” Almost directly after “NGAH! My name is UNDYNE, and I work at a gym to help people get RIPPED! This is my wife, ALPHYS! Go ahead, babe, introduce yourself.” Undyne encouraged the smol drake, who reluctantly spoke up.

 

“M-my name i-i-is Alphys, and, um, um, um, I w-work at um….” She trailed off into quieter sentences until you could barely hear her murmuring, at which Undyne decided to pick up where she left off. “And she works at the NERD LAB with ___ and Sans!” Your mother, while a bit uncomfortable with Undyne and Alphys’ displays of affection, smiled at them, and turned her attention to Sans.

 

“Speaking of Sans, I’ve barely heard anything about him…” She waited expectantly, while Papyrus in his characteristic cinnamon roll self, didn’t even realize that it was a question meant for Sans. “THERE’S REALLY NOT MUCH TO KNOW ABOUT HIM. MY BROTHER IS A BIG LAZY BONES, ALTHOUGH I’M VERY PROUD THAT HE GOT HIS DEGREES RECOGNIZED AND DECIDED TO WORK IN OUR FATHER’S LAB!”

 

“Your father is Dr. Gaster?” your mother asked, her curiosity more than a little piqued. You’d been interested in it at first, too, but with the way that Sans shut it down so fast, you learned to stop asking.

 

“like my bro said, there isn’t much to say about me, although i do admit to being one heck of a skelepun.” You frowned at his undermining of himself. “That’s not true, Sans, you’re a great friend! Sure, you sleep a lot, and tell a lot of puns, but that’s what makes you cool!” You reassured, patting his skeletal hand with an earnest look.

 

“Oh, honey, are you sure that you aren’t a little _more_ than friends? You seemed to be quite keen on defending him..” your mother giggled. Your face flushed. One of the many problems that popped up when you declined to inform your mother of your relationship with Natalie was that she was constantly shipping you with any guy you came into contact with. You’re frankly surprised she hasn’t set you up with a tinder account yet. Not that you wanted the type of relationship that a tinder account could provide, anyways.

 

You looked back to see that Sans’ face was also flushed, and your other friends with a multitude of different emotions, ranging anywhere from guilty at the secret they were keeping, to absolutely hysterical at the idea of you and Sans being a couple.

 

Undyne was the one who didn’t get the que to keep her damn mouth shut, as she replied in the least discreet way possible. “HAH! That’s a funny thought! But ___’s already engaged, and it ain’t to the bone boy!” She continued to laugh after that, even while everyone else in the room blanched. “... Wait? Why aren’t you punks laughing?” Undyne asked once she calmed down, only to realize her fatal mistake.

 

“Ooops?”

 

“What’s she talking about, honey?” your mother inquired with a sweet yet deadly smile on her face. “Um… I-I have NO IDEA, mom, absolutely none.” You replied, sweat building up on your face. “Oh, honey, don’t you know that as your mother, I _know_ when you’re lying to me?”

 

“HUMAN, PERHAPS YOUR MOTHER IS RIGHT? MAYBE NOW IS TIME TO COME CLEAN?” Your mother’s face turned down in displeasure. “Have you been keeping something from me. Something that you felt completely fine to tell to your friends, but not your _mother_?”

 

You sighed in resignation. If you wanted even a chance for her and the rest of your family to show up at your wedding, then you would have to tell her now. “You’re right, as usual Papyrus.” Looking to your mother, you offered a bashful smile. “So, um, I’m engaged.” you told her.

 

Your mother, taking this fact in stride so far, gave you a patient smile that filled you with confidence. “Yes, sweetie, I’ve gleaned that much, now don’t be shy! Tell me who the lucky man is!” Your heart sunk. Lucky _man._ Now all of those secrets about your sexuality were coming back to haunt you. “Um mom, I’m not engaged to a guy.”

 

“What. I don’t understand, darling, then who are you engaged to?” You could see the start of your mother’s brain crashing, but even so you continued on. “I’m engaged to… Natalie.” That was it. Your mother seemed to be thinking very hard, and it was a solid minute before she reacted.

 

And it was not in the way that you had been expecting. In that moment, your mother began to cry. It was an elegant cry, as was everything with your mother, and she nearly controlled the flow of tears by delicately dabbing at her eyes with the palms of her hands. “Mom?” You hesitantly spoke, reaching a hand out to place on her shoulder.

 

“I’m sorry darling, it’s just…. I have cancer…. I came here early to tell you, actually. Not because of the absences, I didn’t think I was going to be able to tell you, but then this came out and - what am I going to do?” Your mom had… cancer? The one who had raised you, loved you unconditionally, threw oranges at you while you goofed off with your siblings… cancer?

 

“Cancer?” Your voice was quiet, unlike your raging mind, and a few tears of your own slipped down your cheeks. Once your mom had gotten herself properly under control, she looked at you with a much more relaxed expression,

 

“I’m sorry… they don’t actually know if It’s cancer yet. I went in for a mammogram, you know what a hypochondriac I can be, and they found suspicious swelling of my lymph nodes. I’m going to get some needles prodded in me later this week, and they’ll tell me for sure. Don’t tell your siblings… I don’t want them to stress… I don’t want you to stress…”

 

You sat back in your seat, still processing this. “Mom… I….”

 

“Darling, don’t worry. It could be nothing, and even if I do have cancer, I know plenty of women who’ve survived breast cancer.”

 

“I feel powerless,” you confessed, cradling your head in your hands, “Is there anything I can do, money? For treatment, I can give you a pretty hefty amount of our savings, our wedding fund, even, I’m sure Natalie won’t mind being put back a few months.” you offered. It seemed impossible that your mother should have such a scary diseases. One that claimed the lives of many, and inspired fear in young and old.

 

“No, darling, don’t do that for me! If you want to help… keep your wedding on time. I want to be there… I know I haven’t given you the best impression of my stance on LGBT, but I’m not like your father, I honestly don’t mind that you’re marrying Natalie. I couldn’t be happier that you’ve found such a lovely companion, just make sure she treats you right.” The irony of that statement was not lost on you, but you put on a large smile for your mother regardless.

 

“Mom…” She looked at you, a patient smile on her face, “I love you.” You whispered, leaning towards her so that you could hold her tight.

 

 

“I love you, too, my little Houdini.”

 

“Still calling me that? Ha, just promise you won’t be the one doing the disappearing act on me this time.”

 

“I’ll be fine, darling, I’ve been fasting to detox…. It takes a bit out of me, but the swelling has gone down, so it might be nothing.” Nodding your head, you gave your mother one last squeeze before settling back down into your seat.

 

“I’m going to pick the kids up, heaven knows what trouble they’ve already gotten into. We’ll be in touch, darling, we don’t leave until monday morning. Happy early birthday.”

 

She stood, and called your step father down. He gave you a brief nod of affirmation (had he heard the whole thing?) And left with your mother. “I’ll text you the address of the shop!” You called out before they left.

 

Turning back to face your living room, you remembered that your friends were still there. “So hey, …. That was…. Dramatic…” You laughed. Sans looked to be napping, while Alphys had turned in on herself, looking to be thinking deeply, you knew that she was generally unresponsive in this state, while Undyne also looked to be contemplating. Papyrus, on the other hand, had a nervous look on his face, while wringing his gloved clad hands.

 

“HUMAN, WHAT IS ‘CANCER’? IS IT SOME SORT OF HUMAN ILLNESS? WILL YOUR MOTHER BE OKAY?” Looking down at your feet, you sighed, glancing back up at the innocent skeleton after a bit. “How much do you know about human biology?” You asked, taking your seat back at the couch, trying to speak patiently, like your mother would.

 

“NOT MUCH…. But, I Do Know That You Are Skeletons With Muscles And Flesh?” He replied.

 

“We can start there. While monsters are made up of dust and magic, humans are organic creatures. Plants and animals are also organic, bugs, fungi, bacteria…. All organic compounds are made of these little squishy things called cells. They’re the most basic unit of life in organic compounds. Some are made up of just one cell, and others, like humans or trees are made up of billions upon billions,”

 

“These cells have DNA, which tell the cell how to function and what to do to make the organic compound healthy. But sometimes, cells mess up, and do things that are harmful to the organic compound rather than helpful. Cancer makes cells to harmful things. It makes the organic compound, or, for example, the person very sick. Since not a lot of people check if they have cancer often, it can sometimes go undetected until it can’t be reversed. And even if they catch it pretty early, sometimes it just keeps coming back…”

 

“And not everybody wants treatment. There’s no real cure or guarantee that the treatment will work, and the treatment can hurt a lot, so some people just want to live in peace for a shorter amount of time with their friends and family, while others may continue to seek treatment.” You concluded.

 

“And Your Mother,” Papyrus started, his hands tightening around each other, “She May Have ‘Cancer’?” You nodded your head, “yes, but they’re not sure right now. She just has some of the signs of it. And like I said, not everybody… there are lots of people who get through cancer! And my mom’s a fighter.” You reassured.

 

“Thank You For Explaining This, Human ____. I Sincerely Hope That Your Mother Does Not Have Cancer, But Even If She Does, I Will Be Sure To Send Lots Of Flowers From The Shop I Work At!”

 

“Thank you, Papyrus. I hope she doesn’t too. Are you guys about ready to head home, now?”

 

He nodded his skull, picking Sans up, and shaking Undyne’s shoulder with one hand to knock her out of her stupor. He ruffled your hair on his way out.

 

“Hey, punk… about that whole cancer thing, don’t even worry about it! Like you said, I’m sure your mom will pull through! She’s an awesome lady if she’s even HALF as cool you!”

 

Clapping you on the back, Undyne carried Alphys out in much a similar manner as Papyrus did to Sans. Alphys, however, was awake, and able to offer you a half smile of encouragement, and a thumbs up. You smiled back, and collapsed on the sofa once they’d left.

 

There was just so much to worry about… but you settled on one of the less anxious topics. Your sure your mom would tell your siblings of your engagement, which only left one more family member to tell. Your brother. And your dad, but, you didn’t really see him anymore. You didn’t exactly see eye to eye with him on a great variety of subjects, and, well, your brother was more inclined to take his side on most topics.

 

But, he was nothing if not caring, and you were banking on that to get you through this whole fiasco. Your phone pinged, telling you that Natalie was returning soon, and had chatted with your mother. She was proud of you telling her, and estatic of how accepting your mom had been. You sent a happy emoji back, the opposite of what you were feeling.

 

Work work work... there was always more to do...

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey... So I haven't been around in awhile. I can explain. So let's start with this series of unfortunate events.... first, the week before Halloween (so long ago omg), I was visiting my brother's army base in south Carolina, and there was like no internet, and so the week of Halloween I was making up so much work for my classes (a lot of which I got points taken off for 'not warning the teachers ahead of time that I wasn't going to be able to complete work' like hunni there was no internet how was I going to even tell you from across the country)
> 
>  
> 
> , then the screen to my laptop like, shattered for some reason??? I think my sis might have stepped on it and not told me, but either way, I got my granddad to fix it like a week later, and I was discouraged by the fact that I was unable to write that Halloween chap, 
> 
>  
> 
> and then the charger to the laptop broke (this thing is so old but I have no money to replace it), and the charger is some super old model that I had to order a new one of, so I wasn't able to access the laptop for awhile, which meant I couldn't write, and the charger came in like three weeks after it was supposed to???
> 
> So I ordered it a week or two after regretting every decision ever and trying to fend off homework and study for semester exams at the same time, and the charger came late, and well, the thing about the mom maybe having cancer? ya, so, my mom might have cancer and I'm kind of projecting that into the character?
> 
> I'll find out tomorrow I'm pretty sure, and I'm super worried, so I scrapped like half the chapter and rewrote it to accommodate this plot twist, so it's just been crazy. Hopefully I'll be able to start of 2018 well....
> 
>  
> 
> Hey, so, if you read all of that, or not,... um.... Just tell me, Do you want a separate work for the holiday chapters? They'll be super late, so you can either have them relevant to the plot, or in a world where Sans and the reader are already together.
> 
> ALSO! I'm having some ideas of a UF version of this, so do you want that later after I have some more chaps put out, or soon? (I did this chap really fast, so tell me if I made any mistakes?)


End file.
